Market Minute: Carl Icahn Gives Himself the Nod for Directorship of Dell

It's good to be a billionaire, and three of them are making news this morning.

Investor Daniel Loeb is pushing Sony (SNE) to spin off part of its entertainment arm. The New York Times says his hedge fund is one of the Japanese company's largest shareholders. He's targeting the unit that includes Sony's movie studio and music label. Sony says it's for sale.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has nominated himself and a slate of 11 others as directors at Dell (DELL). Icahn is leading an effort to block company chairman Michael Dell from taking the company private.

And business sometimes makes strange bedfellows. Climate-change crusader Ted Turner is teaming up with the big electric utility Southern Co. (SO) to develop giant solar farms.

In other news: Blackberry (BBRY) and Nokia (NOK) were once leaders in the smartphone business, but now they're laggards. Today, both companies –- hoping to regain market share -- unveil new models. Nokia showed off the latest in its Lumia line, a phone that charges wirelessly and features a high-end camera. And later today, Blackberry may unveil a cheaper version of its phone.

Amazon (AMZN) has purchased the Samsung unit working on developing color displays for e-readers. That's prompting speculation that Amazon will soon add a color version of its Kindle device.

Video game maker Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) posted a quarterly profit, reversing a year ago loss. Sales for the period were better than expected, led by strong demand for its new "Bioshock Infinite" game.

And Verizon Wireless (VZ) plans to pay a 7-billion dollar dividend to its two co-owners – Verizon Communications and Vodaphone. There had been speculation that Verizon Communications would block the mobile phone joint venture from making the payment, in an effort to force Vodafone to sell its stake.

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