Carl Icahn snaps up a lot more Yahoo!
By Michael W. Jones
The issues surrounding Yahoo! continue to show activity, indicating that there is still great interest in the company one way or another, even in a bad economy and without any active Microsoft pursuit. The latest news is that activist investor Carl Icahn has purchased another 7 million shares of stock in portal/search giant Yahoo!, according to regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
This latest batch of shares cost Icahn about $67 million. According to the AP, they were purchased over a three-day period earlier this week at an average of just under $10 per share. This price-per-share highlights how far Yahoo! stock has fallen since earlier this year, when Icahn made his original investment in Yahoo!, spending $1.5 billion at an average price of about $25 per share.
This latest buying spree gives Icahn a total of approximately 75.6 million shares in Yahoo, or about 5.5 percent of the total number of outstanding shares in the company. That number increases his leverage by about 10 percent, a significant amount. This fuels more speculation about Icahn’s influence on issues such as the replacement of the Yahoo! CEO and the possible sale of the company.
Icahn has been one of the most critical voices in seeking new corporate initiatives at Yahoo. He has been a significant thorn in the side of CEO and Yahoo! founder Jerry Yang. After the Yahoo! board turned down an offer of a $47.5 billion takeover offer from Microsoft earlier this year, Icahn threatened to nominate a complete new slate of directors for Yahoo!. The threat was perceived as real enough that Icahn was given a seat on the Board and allowed to select the occupants of two other Board slots, and CEO Yang has said that he will step down as soon as the Board can find a replacement.
With seats on the Board and a larger percentage of ownership in Yahoo!, Icahn could have an even larger effect on corporate direction than he has in the past. He will certainly have more to say about the selection of the new Yahoo! CEO, and might be able exert more influence on any possible sale of Yahoo!. Microsoft has said they have no further interest in purchasing Yahoo!, but they could change their minds, and of course Microsoft is not the only potential suitor. No matter what else happens, big changes are likely at Yahoo!.
Related:
Entry was posted
on Friday, November 28th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
under
Read more entries by Michael W. Jones.
Stumble It!
