On Thursday, billionaire and top Dell investor Carl Icahn filed a lawsuit against Dell's founder Michael Dell and financial backer Silver Lake Partners, to prevent the proposal of taking the company private.

Icahn, who has been working for months to prevent Michael Dell's latest $26.6 billion proposal to take the company private, filed the lawsuit in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware. He is pushing the Dell special committee to vote on the Michael Dell-Silver Lake proposal to buy out the company as scheduled on August 2, instead of postponing it for a third time.

Icahn's request for the shareholder voting on the Dell buyout proposal to go as per schedule comes close on the heels of the recent rejection of the proposal by the Dell special committee.

In his lawsuit, Icahn has also said that if a new date for the special meeting is set by Dell's board of directors, the company's annual meeting should - as per a filing with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission - be held "on the same date and time, and with the same record date."

Earlier, noting that the Michael Dell-Silver Lake proposal to take the company private is doomed, Icahn had said in a July 31-dated letter to the Dell special committee and shareholders: "Let the vote happen on Friday [Aug. 2]. Michael Dell has said he is `at peace either way.' We are glad to hear it! It is time to let the proposed freeze-out merger die."