The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

4. Icahnoclastic

We're starting to get the feeling Blockbuster (BBI Quote) isn't too crazy about its biggest shareholder.

That's none other than the outspoken billionaire investor Carl Icahn, of course. He has criticized Blockbuster CEO John Antioco for everything from his pay to his strategy for reviving the struggling video store chain. Icahn has indicated he wants to try to sell the chain or make it pay a big dividend.

Last week, Antioco shot back by threatening to quit and brandishing his golden parachute.

A lot of good that did him. On Thursday, the two faced off on Blockbuster's earnings call. Icahn told Antioco to forgo his bonus, which he put at $50 million last year. Antioco said most of last year's bonus was in stock and added that it's up to the board to set pay.

And then, Dow Jones reports, Blockbuster cut Icahn off. The operator said the earnings conference call wasn't the appropriate forum for the discussion.

A spokeswoman for Blockbuster, which lost $58 million for the first quarter as revenue rose 3%, says the surprise isn't that Icahn got cut off, considering some of the things he was saying. The surprise, with Blockbuster and Icahn locked in a nasty proxy fight, is that he got on in the first place.

Blockbuster's Karen Raskopf says CEO Antioco indicated ahead of the call that Icahn should be heard out, as long as his comments didn't head toward a "political stump speech." It was only when Icahn's remarks started getting political that he was cut off, she says.

Anyway, you'd think that given Blockbuster's dismal numbers, the company would have thanked Icahn for providing a distraction rather than cutting him off.

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