Icahn Proposed Buying HP If It Didn’t Pursue Xerox Merger (2)

Activist investor Carl Icahn said in August that he might consider buying HP Inc. himself if the printer maker didn’t pursue a combination with Xerox Holdings Corp.

The billionaire investor presented the possibility to HP’s then-Chief Executive Officer Dion Weisler in a phone call Aug. 12, according to a regulatory filing by HP Thursday. Icahn, who had just taken a 4.2% stake in HP at the time, argued that an HP-Xerox combination would provide about $3.5 billion in cost cuts and revenue enhancements. That figure has since been lowered to $2 billion.

Carl Icahn

Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg

“He wanted a transaction to occur quickly,” ...