By Jennifer Ablan
REUTERS - Billionaire shareholder activist Carl Icahn told Reuters on Monday that the Family Dollar Stores Inc poison pill is a "quintessential example" of attorneys "simply earning fees."
Icahn said the poison pill also "puts a damper" on prospects for a "friendly dialogue" with Family Dollar executives.
Family Dollar adopted a poison pill to buy time to consider any possible deal that Icahn could push for after becoming its largest shareholder.
Icahn said on Friday in a filing that he had a 9.39 percent stake in Family Dollar and said he was considering to push the $6.89 billion company for a merger with rival Dollar General Corp .
"The poison pill especially in this case is a quintessential example of attorneys simply earning fees - how does it possibly help shareholders by putting a pill in?" Icahn said.
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"How does it possibly matter if I own 10 percent or 15 percent of a company? All it does is it makes it more difficult to have a friendly dialogue, which we already are planning to have. It puts a damper, at least from my perspective, for the friendly dialogue."
(Reporting by Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Richard Chang)