Dear Yahoo! You're Fired!

And now we have all learned to never piss off Carl Icahn... the dude swings with a big bat:<p>&#62; "I have therefore taken the following actions: (1) during the last 10 days, I have purchased approximately 59 million shares and share-equivalents of Yahoo; (2) I have formed a 10-person slate which will stand for election against the current board; and (3) I have sought antitrust clearance from the Federal Trade Commission to acquire up to approximately $2.5 billion worth of Yahoo stock."<p>Which translates to:<p>"Oh by the way, I bought 59 million shares last week, and I feel like buying $2.5 billion more just so I can fire you and sell your company to Microsoft."<p>Amusing to say the least.

It seems to me like if something like this were to succeed - Icahn forcing the current board out and replacing it with a group whose primary qualification seems to be that they'd approve a sale - Yahoo would lose a lot of leverage to negotiate a favorable price for its shareholders. Does anyone know how that's dealt with? Would he already have agreed to terms with MS before initiating this?

Mark Cuban looks like the only guy on the proposed slate of directors with any direct experience running a web/software business.

I wish gossip whores like Arrington wrote the way angry corporate raiders (or their secretaries, maybe) do.

I believe John C Dvorak had this right: MS lacks direction. They should stop becoming Web 2.0 masters and instead focus on releasing a simple, effective, high-quality OS (which they've failed with since W2K/XP imo).

Interesting to see that Mark Cuban is in the board nambed by Ichan.

Icahn is not infallible when it comes to internet companies. While Time Warner is not 100% tech, it should be noted that his proxy war never came to fruition.

"completely botched"? Can you be a little less technical please?

It's obvious that the MS offer of $33/share is superior to Yahoo's "standalone" prospects? Really? Long-term, who do you think is on the decline and who isn't? Between the two, I'd bet Yahoo over MS.

&#62; The server at www.techcrunch.com is taking too long to respond.<p>Perhaps it's TechCrunch that should be fired. The site responds less often that Twitter.