Can’t blame Blockbuster for trying to best Netflix — competition breeds excellence — but despite the price cuts and retail convenience, they haven’t been able to take that much from Netflix at the end of the first year.

The companies also switched places in market value over the course of an intense, yearlong price war, with Netflix–which has no debt–now worth $1.5 billion, compared with Blockbuster at $684 million and more than $1 billion in debt.

What caught me in this article wasn’t the success of Netflix despite Blockbuster’s competition, I’ve doubted they would do much for some time now. Remember Wal-Mart trying to make a run at this market and going nowhere? No, it was actually the sentence about the proxy fight launched by none other than “dissident investor Carl Icahn.”

The same Carl Icahn who tried to throw a monkey wrench in the AOL / Google deal. So, this billionaire likes to throw his weight around or what? I Googled the guy to see what came up. First page result, a page from Forbes which classifies Icahn as 67, self-made billionaire who made big scores in selling Nabisco and shorting Priceline. And get this, he prefers the label “shareholder activist.”

I wonder what other tech stocks Mr. Icahn holds? Seems like if he doesn’t like something and owns enough shares, his opinions do at least become newsworthy, even if they aren’t always successful in swaying company moves.

Hmm, does he own any GOOGle stock? Microsoft? Apple? Too bad the guy doesn’t have a blog. Or does he?

• Amazon wants to get into online DVD rental biz
• Forbes richest 400 Americans 50% of top ten Wal-Mart heirs
• Refresh the US debt and sure topic of 2008
• Blockbuster losing its luster
• Netflix says no to porn DVD rentals at this time
• Netflix increases subscribers, but no profit for year