Icahn pushes Clorox sale

Billionaire and activist investor Carl Icahn is pushing for a sale of Clorox, the consumer-products conglomerate that owns Durham-based Burt's Bees.

Icahn offered to buy Clorox for $76.50 a share, or more than $10 billion. But he also urged company officials to seek other "strategic buyers" including Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark, Unilever and Colgate-Palmolive.

Potential acquirers could market Clorox's brands more aggressively overseas, Icahn wrote in a letter to Clorox CEO Donald Knauss.

"I would love to have this company," Icahn told CNBC during an interview Friday. But he wrote that Clorox would find "numerous superior bids" if it shopped itself around.

Icahn or another buyer would likely look for ways to cut costs, sell some of its brands or make other strategic changes across Clorox's divisions. The company bought Burt's Bees, which makes lip balms and other health and beauty products made mostly from natural ingredients, three years ago.

Icahn's announcement could rattle nerves among the 350 people Burt's Bees employs at its Durham headquarters and manufacturing facilities.

Icahn already owns a 9.4 percent stake in Oakland, Calif.-based Clorox, and is eager to see a deal that would boost the value of the stock. He is known for taking big stakes in companies and pushing for buyouts or other changes.

In a statement, Clorox said it has hired Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan to help review Icahn's proposal "in due course."

Clorox shares surged $6.12 on Friday to close at $74.55, the highest level in more than a decade.

Clorox owns a wide range of household brands, including its iconic bleach, Kingsford charcoal, Glad trash bags, Brita water filters, Hidden Valley salad dressing and more. Several analysts said other companies might want some of Clorox's faster-growing parts, but not the whole thing.

Icahn told Bloomberg News he would have to study the tax implications of spinning off some of Clorox's units or individual brands.

Clorox bought Burt's Bees for about $925 million in late 2007. But Clorox announced in January that it would take a charge of up to $255 million to write down the value of Burt's Bees, essentially acknowledging that it overpaid for a business that saw sales growth slow as the recession hit and consumers cut back.

But Burt's Bees has rebounded recently, in part by expanding into new markets in Europe, Asia and Latin America to fuel new sales. The company also is adding more retail outlets to sell its products in this country. While still a small part of Clorox's total revenue, Burt's Bees is its fastest-growing division.

In April, veteran Clorox executive Nick Vlahos took over as vice president and general manager of the division, reinforcing Clorox's control over its future.

Burt's Bees officials on Friday referred questions to a Clorox spokeswoman who didn't return calls seeking comment.