Icahn Grabs More Yahoo Shares

In the latest phase of Carl Icahn’s “activism” regarding the direction of Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO), the conspicuous billionaire has just bought an additional 6.8 million shares of the Internet giant. Icahn had gotten a seat on the Yahoo! Inc. board of directors last summer and promptly called for now ex-CEO Jerry Yang’s head after the executive dismissed a $47.5 billion takeover offer from Microsoft, Inc. (MSFT).

Now with Yang out of his leadership role at the company he helped found, Icahn has increased his total stake in Yahoo to 5.5%, or 75.6 million shares, according to this morning’s AP report.  But nobody believes Icahn will only generate 5.5% of the headlines regarding Yahoo’s future in the near term.

Analysts seem to be willing to consider that Yahoo! Inc. has turned a corner with Yang stepping down.  Though most of the analyst revision pressure is still downward, there have been a couple upward revisions in the past week for 1st quarter 2009 (ending March ‘09) as well as next fiscal year.

Obviously, most of what happens next will be regarding Microsoft’s involvement (or lack thereof) in pursuing a Yahoo buyout.  I think we all know where Mr. Icahn is placing his chips.

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by Email