ICAHN SHUTS LIONS GATE BEHIND HIM

The bitter battle between Carl Icahn and the top executives of Lions Gate Entertainment has ended, with Icahn agreeing to sell nearly all of his 33-percent stake in the studio at 7 percent below Tuesday’s closing price and both sides agreeing to drop their lawsuits against one another. Icahn’s surprise move on Tuesday came just weeks after he had added to his stake in Lions Gate amid speculation that he was about to launch yet another takeover attempt. In an interview with today’s (Wednesday) Los Angeles Times, Icahn said only that “We didn’t lose [money]” on the effort to buy the company “but for all the effort we have made, going into another fight wasn’t worth it.” Icahn had waged a running battle against the “mini” studio’s CEO, Jon Feltheimer, and its vice chairman Michael Burns, accusing them of overspending and taking on risky investments in movies instead of safer ones in television. (Their Lionsgate studio is likely to take a big hit in the current quarter as a result of the disappointing performance of its latest release, Conan the Barbarian.) Lions Gate has reportedly spent millions fighting Icahn’s numerous lawsuits.