Mark Lennihan/Associated Press
Carl C. Icahn
The billionaire investor Carl C. Icahn disclosed late Thursday that he had increased his stake in the WebMD Health Corporation, an online information provider, to 9.49 percent.
Mr. Icahn said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that he had bought call options on WebMD’s stock to raise his stake from his previously disclosed holdings of 7.94 percent. At the time of that initial disclosure, on Oct. 21, Mr. Icahn called WebMD’s shares “undervalued from a long-term perspective.”
He also said he “may seek to have conversations from time to time with management” of WebMD to discuss its business and strategies. Mr. Icahn, an activist shareholder, often tries to persuade companies in which he buys a stake to put themselves up for sale or change their managements or strategies to increase their stock prices.
Mr. Icahn’s control of a 9.49 percent stake would make him WebMD’s largest shareholder.
Three days after Mr. Icahn’s initial disclosure, Soros Fund Management, which is run by the billionaire financier George Soros, disclosed in a regulatory filing that it had acquired a 5.59 percent stake in WebMD.
In his latest filing, Mr. Icahn said he had bought call options that expire on Sept. 23, 2013, with an exercise price of $19.50. That is well below WebMD’s closing price of $31.15 on Thursday. The company’s stock is down 47 percent from its 52-week high.
Mr. Icahn also said he spent $103.4 million to amass his stake of 5.3 million shares, including those underlying call options.