Carl Icahn, the famous activist investor, resigned from the Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) board of directors Friday.
This comes just over a year after he scored the position, following the seemingly endless talks the company had with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) over the possibility of a takeover. Icahn told Yahoo that he was resigning effective immediately because Yahoo! didn't need an activist investor on the board at this time.
In May 2008, Microsoft made a $47.5 billion play for Yahoo!, which then CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang pushed away. This led Icahn, who owned 4.3% of Yahoo!, to kick off a proxy battle to bounce the board. Yahoo! and Icahn reached an agreement that July that put Icahn and two of his choices on the board. Yang left Yahoo! at the end of 2008. The current CEO, Carol Bartz, has Icahn's support.
In a strange way, Icahn's resignation is a fantastic endorsement, as he seems to be saying, "You guys are fine; you don't need me any more." Look no further than the company's recent quarterly update to see why.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-24-2009 @ 12:46PM
markie00 said...
Stifel Nicolaus keeps buy; raises estimates, price target
Stifel Nicolaus analyst George Askew said on Oct. 21 that Yahoo's third-quarter results beat his estimates, and the Wall Street consensus forecasts, on all major metrics including: revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs, adjusted EBITDA (operating cash flow), and cash earnings per share (EPS). Askew said his thesis for Yahoo continues to be based on new leadership; EPS operating leverage as the company continues to close non-core businesses; an improving online ad market; upgrades to key businesses; latent value in Asian Internet assets; and an "underappreciated" search partnership with Microsoft (MSFT).
Askew raised his 2009 EPS (cash EPS before stock compensation expense) forecast from 57 cents to 62 cents and his 2010 EPS view from 60 cents to 72 cents. He also hiked his price target from $19 to $23.