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.

Despite a cautious report from home builders and despite a low volume day, today marked a clear win for the S&P 5000 and for the DJIA. The S&P broke through 1,100 and the DJIA broke through 11,000. We also had two mergers this morning, and while small they are signs that companies are willing to merge once more.

Here were today's closing bell levels:

Dow 10,090.76 +94.85 (0.95%)
S&P 500 1,097.52 +9.84 (0.90%)
Nasdaq 2,175.83 +19.03 (0.88%)

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In an interview with CNBC on Friday, investment legend Carl Icahn referred to the stock market as "schizophrenic" and said that the market is on a "precipice" and "really could go either way."

"If you get a double-dip recession and they start coming down, it's going to be a bit of a bloodbath," he said. "The amateur investor is going to get hit badly again because they're pouring money into these funds. Some of these funds managers I do not think are experienced enough to handle some of the distressed stuff they're buying and they're going to get burned."

Carl Icahn has spent decades shaking up self-dealing, cronyism and nepotism at public companies all over America but, according to a new lawsuit, there were some problems at his own office too.

Sandra Silva, of Cliffside Park, N.J., and Valerie Romano of Ridgewood, Queens, former Icahn employees in their mid-thirties, have sued, alleging that Icahn's wife, 59-year old Gail Golden and her friend systematically excluded them from activities -- and then fired them for no reason.

When Carl Icahn announced the debut of his blog, The Icahn Report, there was great excitement. Finally, someone with decades of experience was going to expose the incompetence and bureaucratic self-enrichment that ensues at board meetings at most public companies in America.

It got off to a good start with a few interesting posts -- but there's been nothing since April 23rd, and even that was just a reprint of a piece Mr. Icahn did for the Huffington Post. Before that there were a few other reprints and guest posts. The last true Icahn Report exclusive piece by the man himself came on December 17th of last year.

Activist investor Carl Icahn is reportedly interested in taking another run at Delphi Corp. after a federal judge ordered the bankrupt auto parts supplier to open the sale of its assets to potential bidders, in addition to the previous offer from private-equity firm Platinum Equity.

Icahn's auto-parts company, Federal-Mogul Corp. (NASDAQ: FDML), had held discussions with Delphi, but the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, which was set up by the Obama administration to oversee the restructuring of the U.S. auto industry, preferred the Platinum Equity deal.

Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) started off the new earnings season with disappointing results that helped to stifle the recent rally. Was that enough of a sign of what's to come? No, probably not. But the earnings reports start to fly in earnest this week, which should provide a more detailed picture of the state of things.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters anticipate that some of the biggest names will prove to be holding their own. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is expected to post a profit of $4.91 per share, marginally higher than a year ago, and Johnson & Johnson's (NYSE: JNJ) expected $1.22 per share profit is slightly lower year over year. Even Mattel Inc.'s (NYSE: MAT) estimated loss of $0.13 per share is the same as in the year-ago period.

Just when it looks like it's safe to buy Lions Gate Entertainment (NYSE: LGF), something comes along to ruin the party. In this case, it's Carl Icahn.

Well, that's not exactly fair. Lions Gate has been ruining its own party to some degree. I remember taking a look at the studio's Q3 numbers and finding that the movie business is indeed risky. Lions Gate is more of a pure play on Hollywood than say Disney (NYSE: DIS), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), or Sony (NYSE: SNE) are. Because of that, the exposure to a bad slate of projects hurts it more than a company that also owns a theme park and/or a major television network. Poor Lions Gate reported a loss in Q3, and cash was used for operations. Not a good situation.

Carl Icahn's battle for shareholder value at Lion's Gate Entertainment (NYSE: LGF) is heating up. After announcing that he had doubled his stake in the company to 9.2% back in October, the super-investor has again increased his position to 14.28%. Since Icahn began investing in Lion's Gate more than two years ago, the share price has plunged and the bellicose mogul is giving indications that he may have had enough with massive losses from film flops like The Spirit and Transporter III

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According to Boxofficemojo, Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail came out on top over the weekend at domestic theaters. As of early estimates, the film brought in over $40 million, proving that Tyler Perry's name can still sell tickets. This is great news for Lions Gate Entertainment (NYSE: LGF), which was looking to score a big hit after experiencing some weak performances at the box office.

Tyler Perry beat out News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) successful thriller Taken, which landed in the second spot. Coming in third was Coraline from General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) Focus Features, although those two films could change positions once final numbers are in. Both of them scored around the $11 million mark. Time Warner Inc's (NYSE: TWX) He's Just Not That Into You was fourth and News Corp.'s Slumdog Millionaire, the toast of the Oscars telecast last night, was fifth. Both of those features scored similar amounts, about $8 million each, so we'll see what happens with their respective rankings. Poor Jason Voorhees. Last week, his movie, Friday the 13th, killed at the box office. This week, the slasher dropped 80% in terms of gross and landed in sixth place after debuting in the top slot. Talk about a bloody decline for Time Warner. Horror movies do tend to go down fast after the opening weekend, but I thought this particular feature might exhibit more strength.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) reported that its Q4 profit tripled but it fell short of estimates.
• Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) met earnings estimates but it is getting more pressure from Carl Icahn.
• BP (NYSE: BP) surprised Wall Street with a multibillion dollar Q4 loss due to lower oil prices.
• Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) beat Q2 estimates but warned that incoming orders have declined.
• Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. (NYSE: DKS) reaffirmed its previous Q4 guidance, which pleased investors.
• Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE: EL) topped Q2 earings estimates and it announced job cuts.
• Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) Q4 earnings fell on higher claim expenses and lower investment income.
• JDS Uniphase Corp. (NASDAQ: JDSU) adjusted earnings were in line with estimates but revenue fell.

Carl Icahn has been making the round doing everything short of stripping naked on CNBC to get his message across: Corporate governance in America is a complete joke and a major contributor to the mess we're in now. Shareholders and lawmakers need to get on the ball and do something about it.

In an op-ed piece in today's Wall Street Journal, Icahn writes that government bailouts have essentially plowed hundreds of billions of dollars into poorly-managed companies that still have same poor governance structures and lazy and incompetent managements and directors.

What can Congress and President Obama do? Icahn writes that "First, Congress needs to pass legislation giving shareholders enhanced rights to elect new boards, submit resolutions for stockholder votes, and have far more input on executive compensation and other issues. As companion to these reforms, Congress needs to pass legislation that prevents managers from making it more difficult for shareholders to exercise their ownership rights."

Icahn has been complaining about corporate governance in America for literally decades. He was lionized as an opportunist and corporate raider but the events of the past few months are proving that he was on to something.

Here's an idea: President Obama should create a cabinet level position of corporate governance that can work with all branches of government to improve shareholder right and management accountability. And the first Secretary of Corporate Governance should be none other than Mr. Icahn.

This post is part of our feature on Money Losers of 2008. See all 20.

There's no doubt about it -- times are tough. People are struggling to find work and to pay the bills as the value of their homes and savings dwindle. The poor get poorer, and the rich get richer.

Or do they? It's all relative, of course, but world's billionaires have been taking some big hits too. We take a look at Sheldon Adelson, Kirk Kerkorian, and Lakshmi Mittal in their own separate posts, but here are some other billionaires who have lost billions this year (courtesy of Forbes and Business Sheet).

• Brothers Anil and Mukesh Ambani of India's private conglomerate Reliance lost $32.5 billion and $28.2 billion, respectively.
• Warren Buffett, the Sage of Omaha, lost $16.5 billion. Shares of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A) are down about 32% since the beginning of the year.
• Microsoft (NYSE: MSFT) founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen lost $12.3 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively, while CEO Steve Balmer lost $6.5 billion. Shares of Microsoft are down 46% since the beginning of the year.
• Larry Page and Sergey Brin, cofounders of Google Inc. (NYSE: GOOG), lost $11.9 billion and $11.7 billion, respectively, and CEO Eric Schmidt lost $3.8 billion. The share price of Google has fallen 55% since the beginning of the year.
• Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL), lost $8.2 billion. Shares of Oracle are down 21% since the beginning of the year.
• Media maven Sumner Redstone lost $7.2 billion. Shares of his private investment firm National Amusements fell 70% this year.

In a move that comes as somewhat of a surprise, Carl Icahn spent the first three days of this week spending $67 million on shares of Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO). He bought 6.8 million shares for an average of $9.92 bringing his total stake to 75.6 million million shares -- roughly 5.5%of the company.

Given that Icahn's nemesis, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is on the way out, Icahn may be positioning himself to have considerable say in the company's choice of successor. Icahn controls three seats on the company's board of directors.

The market value of the company has taken a beating since Icahn got involved. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) had offered to acquire the company for $33 per share. Yang spurned that offer and it was withdrawn in May. The stock now sits right around the $10 mark.

Icahn's decision to up his stake in the company signals some level of long-term confidence now that any kind of major deal with Microsoft seems like a remote possibility. But the question shareholders have to ask is, as valuable as Icahn is on matters of corporate governance, does he really have the expertise that will make him a valuable contributor to the internet company's search for a CEO?

Have you ever noticed that the people blaming the current economic mess on short sellers tend to be either A.) loud mouths who don't know what they talking about or B.) Failed CEOs turned corporate blame shifters looking for something -- anything -- to divert attention from their own miscues: people like Patrick Byrne and Dick Fuld.

In a post on his blog, Carl Icahn came up with an argument in support of short selling that I hadn't heard before:

In simplest terms, choosing not to buy a stock because you don't like the company is like refusing to be friends with a drunk. But shorting a stock is like sending a drunk into rehab. Many of these companies, drunk with money and neglectful of risk, should have been sent to rehab a long time ago.

It's possible that aggressive short-selling accompanied by a public campaign of red flags might have pushed companies like Lehman Bros. and Bear Stearns to take a look at their risk management policies before it was too late: Certainly Lehman might have avoided its fate if it had listened to David Einhorn's warnings about leverage instead of dismissing him as irrelevant and buying back huge amounts of stock.