Icahn flees the Yahoo! coop

Saying that the company's board does not need "to have an activist on the Board of Yahoo," outspoken financier Carl Icahn made it official that he has resigned from Yahoo!'s board. By resigning from the Yahoo board, Icahn said he will have more time to focus on other matters including beleaguered financier CIT group. 

His resignation comes only a year since he pushed his way onto the Yahoo board after he settled his proxy challenge to shake up the company's directors. Last August, Icahn tried to force out Yahoo's board after the company through its then-CEO Jerry Yang, turned down Microsoft's $47.5 billion offer to purchase the search engine provider.

Ultimately, Yang resigned from the company and was replaced by Carol Bartz earlier this year. In a letter to Yahoo's shareholders Icahn expressed his appreciation for Bartz's work so far as CEO and maintained that the Microsoft transaction will "provide great long term benefits, the potential of which many still do not understand." With Icahn's departure, Yahoo's board will consist of 11 board members, a number that will drop to ten when Frontier CEO Maggie Wilderotter leaves at the end of 2009.

For more:
- CNET has this article [1]

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