Is Chesapeake Energy for sale? MDN says you have to be a Dodo bird to ignore the signs. Activist investor (nee corporate raider) Carl Icahn has been the puppet master pulling the strings since he got a seat on the board of directors in June 2012, culminating in a jobs massacre two weeks ago (see The Great Chesapeake Massacre: Lawler Fires 800 People in One Day). Why do corporate raiders invest in companies? To slash employees, sell bits and pieces of the company off that are “unprofitable” and in general get it ready for sale–so the corporate raider can line his pockets when the stock price goes up. Selling companies is what they (disgustingly) do.
So you won’t be surprised that (a) Icahn has upped his investment in Chesapeake–he now owns 10% of the stock, and (b) the “Chessy is for sale” rumor mill has officially begun. The UK Daily Mail reports both BP and Shell could be looking at Chessy as a potential purchase…
