EXCLUSIVE - Icahn: Family Dollar poison pill puts damper on "friendly dialogue"

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.

"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)