
Financier Carl Icahn nominated himself and eight others on Friday for election to the RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp. board, saying his slate would break up the food and tobacco company by spinning off its food holdings. Icahn had signaled his intentions on Thursday when he said he was dissatisfied with RJR Nabisco's plan to spin off its U.S. tobacco operations as a separate company owned by RJR shareholders. His filing of a competing slate of candidates for the RJR board sets up a showdown at the May 12 annual meeting, when shareholders can decide which breakup plan they prefer. Carol Makovich, a spokeswoman for RJR, said the company had no comment on Icahn's filing. RJR Nabisco, which was the target in the biggest and most dramatic takeover battle of the 1980s, owns the nation's second-biggest tobacco company led by the Winston, Salem and Camel cigarette brands. It also owns an 80.6 percent stake in Nabisco Holdings Corp., which is traded separately and is the nation's biggest cookie and cracker maker with brands such as Oreos, Chips Ahoy!, Snackwells and Ritz. Both Icahn and RJR management feel the food company would fare better in the stock market if its ties were severed to the tobacco business, which faces hundreds of lawsuits. But they disagree over how to make the split. In addition to Icahn, his nominees include Jerome Becker, Harold First, Seymour Fliegal, Russell Glass, Martin Hirsch, Robert Mitchell, Felix Pardo and Jack Wasserman. None appears to have any experience in the tobacco industry. Glass and Mitchell work for companies Icahn heads, and they sit with First and Wasserman on another company board chaired by Icahn. Hirsch works for a real estate investment partnership with an address that matches where another Icahn firm is based. Becker is a lawyer, Fliegal is an educational consultant and Pardo is a business executive.