Carl Icahn reported a 7.7-percent stake in Manitowoc Co. Inc. and became the second activist investor this year to push for a splitup of the company's crane and foodservice equipment businesses.
Ralph Whitworth's Relational Investors urged the company to spin off the foodservice equipment business in June, when it reported an 8.5-percent stake in the Wisconsin-based company.
Manitowoc's crane business has been hurt by weak demand for its rough-terrain and boom trucks, and the company said in October that it expected revenue in the business to decline by a mid-to-high single-digit percentage in 2014.
The crane business contributed nearly 62 percent of Manitowoc's total revenue of about $4 billion in 2013.
