14 DAY TRIAL // Yahoo is still far from recovery and, despite a very important deal with Microsoft, it's beginning to look that it wasn't enough to sway the general opinion about the company's future. And that deal itself is looking worse and worse as time goes by, with many believing that Yahoo could have gotten better terms or that it should have stuck with the search business. Now, the grumblings from inside may be rising again as board member Carl Icahn is leaving his chair after quite a turbulent tenure.
He thinks it's now time to move on and pursue other more attractive interests in other companies saying, "There was not a need at this time for an activist investor" at Yahoo. The lack of time and the focus on other companies is the official reason for his departure, but, considering his troubled stay at the company, the motivation may be a little different. At the same time, it's likely that many at Yahoo are glad to see him gone, as Icahn didn't exactly make a lot of friends at the company.
Still, Yahoo had an official and standard canned response thanking the shareholder for his input. "Carl has been an important member of our Board and has helped us through some significant transitions. We are all grateful for his active role shaping the future of Yahoo," the company said in a statement.
Icahn created a lot of turmoil last year during the Microsoft takeover negotiations. When he failed to raise the interest of Microsoft directly, he managed to get a board seat thanks to his five-percent stake in the company. His plan was to reignite the talks between the two giants, but, by that time, Microsoft had become, obviously, uninterested. He then changed his strategy and supported the search deal, which was eventually finalized and announced last summer.
Yahoo's current CEO, Carol Bartz, and Icahn haven't been on the best of terms, but it's unclear if he is just giving up the fight or whether he is confident that Yahoo is headed in the right direction. In any case, he probably realized that nothing big was going to happen at Yahoo in the immediate future and, with the stock price going up, he is moving on to other, potentially more profitable, ventures.