Icahn Muling Yahoo Proxy Fight: Report
This story was written by Joseph Weisenthal.
This would certainly shatter the uneasy calm at Yahoo: CNBC is reporting that billionaire investor/gadfly Carl Icahn may launch a proxy fight at Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), and according to their sources, he may have acquired up to 50 million shares of Yahoo last week, representing 3.5 percent of the company. Shares of Yahoo, which had been sliding since last wee, have perked up in the last hour on the reports. The fundamental question is this: is Microsoft's (NSDQ: MSFT) offer still on the table at $33 or even $31. If it is, and Icahn can get a slate of (literal) yes-men on the board, then that's an opportunity.
Icahn would need some help to make it happen, but we know some big shareholders weren't happy with the way things played out. Major shareholder Capital Research Global Investors publicly expressed disappointment at how things turned out, reports MarketWatch and Legg's Bill Millerwhose luck lately has been that of the cooler at the blackjack tableseemed to second guess the outcome as well.
Other shareholders may be in the mood to go along. Since Microsoft pulled its bid, there's been no movement on deals with AOL or Google that were supposed to have provided shareholders with a silver medal.
More to come
By Joseph Weisenthal