What is Carl Icahn’s beef with McDonald’s?

FOR MOSTHBOTV of his life Carl Icahn was vilified for his abrasive personality and his activism as an investor. His mother said he had the spirit of Genghis Khan. Oliver Stone based Gordon Gekko, a fictional predator-in-chief of the junk-bond boom, in part on Mr Icahn. Bill Ackman, no softie, called him a bully who is not used to someone standing up to him, when the two pugilistic financiers fought over Herbalife, a nutritional-supplements business. He is most chief executives’ worst nightmare.Late in life the 86-year-old Mr Icahn seems to be showing his milder side. This month , a network, launched “The Restless Billionaire”, a largely sympathetic documentary that tracks his rise from modest beginnings in Queens to one of Wall Street’s titans. And on February 20th Mr Icahn launched a proxy fight for two board seats of McDonald’s to press the fast-food behemoth to require its suppliers to improve their treatment of pregnant pigs. “Animals are one of the things I feel really emotional about,” he told the . He reserves especial affection for pigs, which are unusually clever.