SAN FRANCISCO—Billionaire financier Carl Ichan is still agitating EDA vendor Mentor Graphics Corp.
Icahn, who controls about 15 percent of Mentor and last year saw three of his nominees to the company's board
elected by shareholders after a proxy fight, issued a new open letter to Mentor Tuesday (May 1) describing his disappointment that two of the three directors were not re-nominated to serve on the company's board for another year.
The two board members, Federal-Mogul Corp. President and CEO Jose Maria Alapont and former Synplicity Inc. CEO Gary Meyers, were both recommended to shareholders by Institutional Shareholder Services, a proxy firm, during last year's proxy contest, Icahn noted in his letter.
"We view this action as an affront to shareholders and shareholder democracy—especially given that ISS recommended last year that shareholders vote for both Messrs. Alapont and Meyers," Icahn's letter read.
Icahn's letter also criticized Mentor's recent decision to extend a "poison pill" measure enacted last year in an apparent attempt to block Icahn from taking control of the company
after he offered to buy it. "Apparently, our three nominees, as a minority on a board with a still-entrenched majority, were unable to prevent this contemptuous behavior," Icahn wrote.
"While it is past the deadline for nominating directors at this year's annual meeting, we wanted to inform you and the rest of the company's shareholders that these actions have not gone unnoticed," the letter read.
Icahn last year wrote several letters to Mentor's board claiming that the company was undervalued and criticizing Mentor's management in the lead up to the proxy contest.
A spokesman for Mentor confirmed that the company's board received Icahn's latest letter but said Mentor had no comment on it at this time.