Carl Icahn issued an open letter to stockholders of Occidental Petroleum, which reads in part, “It has been six months since Occidental Petroleum Corporation inexplicably agreed to pay over $57 billion (including assumed debt) to acquire Anadarko Petroleum Corporation. Today, the combined Oxy/Anadarko company has a total market cap of less than $35 billion. Since April 12, 2019, when public reports first suggested OXY would engage in a bidding war, OXY has lost over $21 billion in market cap and the stock has plummeted from $67 per share, to $39 per share, a stunning 42% decrease. In our view, the Oxy/Anadarko merger made no sense for stockholders, but perhaps it made sense for Vicki Hollub, OXY’s President and CEO, and certain Board members who, we believe, were concerned that OXY would be a takeover target, and therefore grossly overpaid to acquire Anadarko in order to protect themselves and their jobs. The Company’s actions are especially reprehensible since management repeatedly pledged that it would not engage in risky M&A and would maintain a prudent balance sheet….In this week’s earnings announcement and subsequent market reaction, I believe it has become apparent — perhaps to everyone except Hollub and her Board — that OXY’s massive Anadarko gamble is seriously jeopardizing the Company’s future value…Earlier this year we owned over 33 million shares of OXY, but recently we reduced the size of our investment. I still own almost 23 million shares, valued at almost $900 million, but this has become a very risky investment and without changing the incumbent Board and potentially the CEO, and in the absence of accountability for the OxyDarko Disaster, I am very concerned. I have no faith in Hollub or her Board, and even though I do believe that OXY owns good assets, I draw the line at exposing more than $1 billion to a CEO and Board who, in my view, have gambled the Company to further their own agendas – all at the expense of stockholders. We fully intend to run a proxy fight, and if elected, work to right this teetering ship. It is imperative that we, the stockholders, who are the true owners of the Company, hold Hollub and certain of her Board members accountable for the massive value destruction that has occurred, and that we fear, may continue.”