(Photo: AP) 
 
 Under the plan, Netflix's shareholders will be given the right to acquire more stock if any individual investor acquires more than a 10% stake in the company, commonly referred to as a "poison pill." Netflix said the plan was meant to protect the company and shareholders from “efforts to obtain control of Netflix that the board of directors determines are not in the best interests of Netflix and its stockholders.” 
 
 In a statement on Monday, Icahn Capital said that “any poison pill without a shareholder vote is an example of poor corporate governance, and find the pill Netflix just adopted is particularly troubling due to its remarkably low and discriminatory 10 percent threshold.” 
 
 “As one of the company’s largest shareholders we are concerned about the poor corporate governance at Netflix that these and other actions reflect,” the statement added. The company announced on Monday that its board had adopted a shareholder rights plan, or poison pill, just days after Mr. Icahn disclosed he had acquired a 9.98 percent stake. Enlarge Image Close Bloomberg News Carl Icahn, billionaire investor 
 
 The Netflix poison pill would apply to shareholders as of Nov. 2, when the plan was adopted unanimously by the company's seven-person board, which includes Chief Executive Reed Hastings, who holds about a 4.5% stake. The poison pill is intended to make it more expensive for Mr. Icahn to accumulate more Netflix shares.
– Following billionaire investor Carl Icahn's purchase of a 10% stake in Netflix, word is out that he may push the company to sell—so Netflix has opted for the "poison pill" approach. The company is giving shareholders the right to snap up more stock if any single shareholder acquires more than a 10% share of the firm, thus—in theory—diluting the value of shares, the Wall Street Journal reports. The plan would make it very costly to buy up a controlling stake. Also known as a shareholder rights plan, the poison pill is standard practice for companies fighting a takeover, the New York Times notes. "Adopting a rights plan is a very reasonable thing to do in light of the recent, and stealth, accumulation of stock and options by an activist investor," a Netflix rep says.