Icahn To Push Yahoo into Accepting Microsoft Bid?

Hoo doggy, Carl Icahn just can't keep his fingers out of sticky situations, can he? After he helped to strong-arm two of his people onto Motorola's board of directors and generally push the company into its new break-up plan, it seems that Icahn has some time on his hands -- time he intends to spend on pushing Yahoo towards accepting Microsoft's now-withdrawn buyout proposal.

His announced method is also eerily familiar to those who have followed the Motodrama: to use his 59 million Yahoo shares to launch a proxy fight in order to install buyout-friendly executives on the Yahoo board. This could get interesting again, folks.

Microsoft, maybe hold off on those talks with AOL -- Yahoo is definitely a slightly better fit.

In either case -- it's nice to see that Microsoft in interested in acquiring a company with good online service offerings (even if that's not the main reason). What would be nicer is a clearer picture of what their online services strategy is overall, 'cause between Live, the Danger buyout, and Live Mesh, we'll admit to being more than a little lost.

WC Staff