Motorola CEO Ed Zander was enjoying a moment of relief from his company's struggles last January, mingling with fellow corporate chieftains at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, when he got the message that makes CEOs see their careers flash before their eyes. The news: Carl Icahn was calling him out. He had bought a 1.4% stake in Motorola and was demandingrna seat on the company's board. A few days later Zander made what has become a ritual trip for CEOs caught in Icahn's cross hairs, hastening to the investor's sumptuous offices on the 47th floor of Manhattan's GM Building. The setting is an integral part of the Icahn treatment. CEOs en route to his lair parade past a giant 19th-century watercolor of Napoleon riding to glory over the Russians in the Battle of Friedland, just the sort of rout Icahn covets in his corporate battles.
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