According to a brief item in the Wall Street Journal, former Stratosphere owner Carl Icahn and investment fund Oaktree Capital Management are putting the squeeze on MGM Mirage and its majority shareholder Kirk Kerkorian. Quoth the WSJ, Icahn and Oaktree “have each gobbled up hundreds of millions of MGM Mirage bonds and have told the troubled casino giant it should quickly overhaul its massive debts in bankruptcy … ”
And where does Carl Icahn especially like to make acquisitions? In bankruptcy proceedings, that's where. The paper says Icahn and Oaktree have made it known to MGM that bankruptcy “is the best option” for the company.” Whether or not Icahn's endgame is to wrest MGM away from Kerkorian or simply to get a seat at the table, we could be looking at a real clash of the titans.
