Icahn Enterprises faces lawsuit over collusion in Endeavor buyout

Carl Icahn has never been one to quietly accept a deal he doesn’t like. But a new lawsuit suggests that his firm’s aggressive challenge to Endeavor Group Holdings’ buyout may have crossed a legal line. A complaint filed in Delaware Chancery Court on September 21, 2026, accuses Icahn Enterprises, Carl Icahn-affiliated entities, and several other hedge funds of unlawfully colluding in their appraisal arbitrage bets against Silver Lake’s acquisition of Endeavor. The allegation: these players didn’t just independently decide the $27.50-per-share deal undervalued the company. They coordinated their strategies, which, if true, would transform a routine shareholder rights exercise into something far more legally problematic. The deal that started it all Silver Lake completed its acquisition of Endeavor’s outstanding shares on March 24, 2025, paying $27.50 per share. That price reflected a 55% premium over Endeavor’s unaffected trading price, putting the total deal value at roughly $13 billion. Approximately 150 million Endeavor shares entered appraisal proceedings in Delaware Chancery Court in 2025, carrying a combined value of about $4.1 billion at the deal price. That makes it what has ...