Rumours: 'Corporate raider' sniffing around HP

HP's shares rise sharply on rumours that "active" investor Carl Icahn wants a piece of ailing giant

HP's pallid share price has rallied slightly amid unconfirmed rumours that "active investor" Carl Icahn could be looking to build a position in the ailing vendor.

HP's share price has sank sharply south over the last 18 months as a series of missteps knocked investors' faith in the world's largest hardware firm.

But fuelled by rumours that Icahn is looking to buy influence in the firm, HP's share price bounced back 5.4 per cent in early morning trading on the New York stock exchange yesterday.

Painted in some circles as a "corporate raider", Icahn is known for his ability to unlock shareholder value and for aggressively pushing an agenda at firms where he acquires ownership.

He has held interests in the likes of Motorola, Yahoo! and BEA Systems, which agreed a deal with Oracle in 2008 following his pleas for the firm to sell up.

Although confirmed by neither party, rumours of Icahn's interest in the firm – which were being bandied about on Twitter – was enough to ensure HP's share price closed 2.9 per cent up last night.

Icahn has a track record of pushing for the firms in which he invests to be broken up, last year playing an instrumental role in the spin off of Motorola Mobility into Google.

Naturally, this has sparked rumours that Icahn's agenda at HP – if he has one at all – would be similar, following on from comments made in the summer by an analyst that investors would realise better value if HP was broken into pieces.

HP's share price currently stands at $14.16, up more than 20 per cent since 20 November, when it announced it had uncovered "serious accounting improprieties" at Autonomy.