MUMBAI: Gregory Meyer, the co-founder of DVDXpress that merged with Redbox last year, has initiated a proxy battle with Blockbuster in his aim to see himself as company director.

News of the proxy battle comes as Carl Icahn disclosed that he sold all of his Class B shares and more than 48,000 Class A shares of Blockbuster. That leaves the billionaire financier with less than 4 per cent of the company, down from about 17 per cent recently.

Meyer, who owns 620,000 Blockbuster shares, wants to replace James Crystal when shareholders vote at the annual meeting 26 May. Crystal incidentally owns 140,000 Blockbuster shares.

In a filing, Meyer said that one reason shareholders should oust Crystal is that he hasn‘t purchased shares from the open market and has got them only through his service on the board. Meyer also noted that when Crystal joined the board in 2007, The stock of Blockbuster was at $6.50 a share and it closed at 28 cents on Thursday.

Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes called Meyer‘s self-nomination "a costly and disruptive proxy contest," and recommended that shareholders vote for Crystal.