Financier Carl Icahn ended his bid for Reckson Associates Realty, The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Tuesday, a move that illustrates the difficulty activist shareholders face in challenging management.
Reckson late Monday night said its board voted against a $4.3 billon takeover offer from Icahn, saying the bid wasn't better than an offer from rival office landlord SL Green Realty.
Reckson's board also reaffirmed its support of SL Green's roughly $4 billion cash-and-stock offer and said the company would proceed with a Dec. 6 shareholder vote on SL Green's offer.
Icahn later said he would back out, the WSJ reported, citing him as saying in an interview: "The offer is pretty much done. It's a minor disappointment."
Real-estate developer Harry Macklowe and Mack-Cali, a real-estate investment trust, both dropped out of the partnership with Icahn over the weekend.
Now, Icahn said he is returning to his roots as a solo financier, bringing him full circle in his approach to "activist" investing, said the WSJ. Until a couple of years ago, when Icahn began joining forces with other investors to prod corporate managements to change, he largely had operated on his own, the paper added.