US billionaire investor seeks to take control of Yahoo board

There have been reports that billionaire US investor, Carl Icahn, is considering a proxy fight for Yahoo’s executive board, which could pave the way for a take-over of the company.

Mr Icahn, one of the world’s richest men, purchased 50 million shares in Yahoo, after Microsoft withdrew its bid after failing to reach an agreement with Yahoo.

A combination of Yahoo and Microsoft would have helped the software group to compete more effectively with Google, the world’s largest internet company.

Mr Icahn has a history of closing controversial corporate deals. He is to file a slate of alternate directors to replace the current board when it meets for its shareholder meeting in early July.

Many reports say that Mr Icahn has at least 12 potential board candidates with the deadline for nominating a dissident board being today.

Bill Miller of Legg Mason, Yahoo’s second largest shareholder, says he is keen to see what Mr Icahn and other activists can do.

According to Shirley Westcott, managing director of policy at Proxy Governance, an independent proxy advisory firm, the news of Mr Icahn’s involvement in the Yahoo soap opera certainly raises the heat of the situation.

Ms Westcott believes Mr Icahn’s emergence as a player will add to the pressure the Yahoo board is being put under to go back to Microsoft and restart talks.

Earlier this year, Mr Icahn persuaded BAE Systems to accept an offer to be bought by Oracle for $8.5 billion while back in March, he persuaded Motorola to divide into two companies.

Two years ago, Mr Icahn unsuccessfully pushed for the break up of Time Warner but was quoted as saying, maybe I made a mistake, but I made $300 million on it so is that so bad?.

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