Yes, Ichan
According to a CNBC report citing “people who have spoken to him,” corporate raider Carl Icahn has built a significant holding in Yahoo! since the collapse of the Microhoo deal, as a platform for a possible proxy fight to place three or four nominees on Yahoo’s board.
The figure mentioned was around 50 million shares, 3.6 percent of the total. Yahoo! stock rallied over five percent at the news, closing at $26.56 – the highest since the Microhoo deal fell through.
Icahn may join forces with Capital Research’s Gordon Crawford and at Legg Mason’s Bill Miller, each with about six percent, to channel shareholder displeasure over the board’s handling of the Microsoft offer.
It’s been a busy week for Icahn. Leaving the thoroughly cowed Motorola board behind him, on Monday he announced that if Blockbuster, in which he is the largest shareholder, did not acquire ailing retailer Circuit City, he would on behalf of his own investors.
There is a tight deadline (15 May) for the nomination of directors to be put to the annual shareholder meeting on 3 July. If Icahn and his attendant remoras make a move, expect the Microhoo saga to open a new and exciting chapter.
