Business Notes CORPORATE RAIDERS

For more than a year, takeover artist and TWA chairman Carl Icahn has been missing from the roiling waters of corporate raids, beached by huge investments in Texaco and USX. But last week Texaco's largest stockholder sent a quiver through the New York Stock Exchange when he abruptly unloaded his 17.3% stake, or 42 million shares, for $2.07 billion (his profit: $600 million). The sale, which ranked as the largest single trade in Big Board history, was so unwieldy that three investment firms -- Shearson Lehman Hutton, Goldman, Sachs and Salomon Brothers -- teamed up to buy the shares. The bombshell transaction freed Icahn to prowl once more, setting off speculation that he would make another move to take over USX. Icahn owns some 29 million shares of the oil-and-steel concern, or 11.4%, worth about $1 billion. But so far, Icahn refuses to tip his hand.