Icahn to run board slate for Yahoo: Sources

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New York, May 15: : Interactive Group, sources said.

One industry expert said Icahn would likely have a better chance with a minority board slate, since it is unlikely that investors would allow a complete takeover of the board and the attendant uncertainty that such a move would have at Yahoo.

It's handing the company over to an entirely different team," said Bruce Goldfarb, partner in Okapi Partners, a proxy advisory firm. "While a dissident slate would obviously have a mandate to sell the company, investors just don't give up control without a premium. If Microsoft was on board, he'd have a chance."

The move on Yahoo is the latest of a number of proxy battles that Icahn, whose net worth is estimated at $14.5 billion, has recently waged. Last month, there was the settlement with Motorola and earlier this month, he nominated three candidates to the board of biotech company Biogen Idec Inc.

Hedge fund managers had mixed views about the Icahn move.

"You can't lose," said one manager at a multibillion-dollar activist hedge fund approvingly. "The only thing you don't know: if you deliver the company to (Microsoft CEO Steve) Ballmer, does he take the deal?"

Another had less-than-kind words about Icahn. "Don't mix good governance with Carl Icahn. This is not about governance. It's about a quick buck."