Another day, another billion dollars (or so)

Have you heard of Carl Icahn? If not, he’s a billionaire investing who made his fortune buying and selling companies. He currently owns about 50 million shares in Yahoo and is trying to force the Yahoo board to sell to Microsoft. Get the picture now?

Icahn recently sent a letter to Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock in which Icahn stated he will replace Jerry Yang as CEO and sell to Microsoft in a deal that would value the internet pioneer company shares at $33 plus. Icahn has suggested that shares in Yahoo are worth $34.375 which values the company at $49.5 billion. He has also pledged to remove the severance plan for Yahoo employees should MS acquire the company in a move that would save Microsoft around $2.4 billion in severance pay.

If the MS falls through, Icahn has said he will seek a deal with Google.

Hmm, it’s getting hot again. Is this all part of Redmonds proxy battle to remove the Yahoo board? Personally, I don’t think so. Microsoft are no doubt pushing ahead with plans for their own search technologies whilst Yahoo are commited to outsourcing search advertising to Google which makes a deal look less likely.

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