Carl Icahn Exercises Netflix Stock Options

The billionaire corporate raider just paid $154.7M for 4,291,066 Netflix shares, he says in an SEC filing. His decision to exercise his call options means he now directly owns 9.98% of the video streaming company — 5,541,066 shares — which is just shy of the 10% amount that could trigger an anti-takeover defense known as a poison pill. The filing says that Icahn paid $323.6M for all of his shares, which comes out to an average of $58.40 a share. Netflix closed today at $81.36, up 17% from the end of last month when Icahn disclosed his interest in the company. Since then Icahn has attacked Netflix’s corporate governance practices and lobbied for it to look for a buyer. CEO Reed Hastings says that his company “can make it in the long term absolutely on our own.”