XO rejects Icahn's latest buyout offer

The Carl Icahn XO Communications ownership saga has taken yet another turn this week as a special committee Board of Directors for XO Holdings turned down ACF Industries Holding's offer for the rest of the company's common stock. XO said the proposed acquisition price of $0.55 per share is far too low and undervalues the company. Icahn's company ACF currently owns a 53 percent stake in XO.

However, XO said in a statement that it told Icahn it would consider a proposal "that recognizes the full value of the company and reflects the significant benefits that would accrue to ACF as a result of full ownership."

Rob Powell, founder and editor of the Telecom Ramblings blog, believes that Icahn either wants to sell off XO or perhaps gain a bigger foothold in the competitive telecom space. "It has been a long time in coming, but it seems clear that Icahn is finally ready either to cash out entirely or to use XO as leverage to get a more viable piece of the telecom space as I speculated last month [1]," he said on his blog. "The likeliest buyers for XO's assets are Level 3 Communications, Global Crossing, and TW Telecom."

For more:
- see the release here [2]

Related article
Some fellow XO investors challenge Chairman Icahn [3]