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[quote=COOLSPRINGS,293710]For now, Falvey thinks it makes sense for Microsoft to let Icahn agitate for a deal so the software maker doesn't risk alienating the Yahoo workers it hopes to retain.

Wall Street's hopes that a friendly deal might still be worked out has helped cushion the blow to Yahoo's stock since the takeover talks unraveled. Yahoo shares gained 8 cents to close at $26.44 Friday amid a sharp downturn in the overall stock market.

Icahn recently helped pick up the pieces of fractured sales talks between software makers Oracle Corp. and BEA Systems Inc. After Oracle withdrew a takeover offer of $17 per share when BEA insisted on $21 per share, Icahn helped negotiate a sale at $19.375 per share, or $8.5 billion.

Microsoft's withdrawal of its $47.5 billion offer outraged many Yahoo shareholders who believe the company's board allowed Yang's emotions ruin a chance to sell at a price far above Yahoo's market value before Microsoft made its bid Jan. 31.

At $33 per share, Yahoo shareholders would have received a 72 percent premium, based on the company's $19.18 stock price at the time of Microsoft's initial offer.

Yang maintains Yahoo is poised to bounce back from a financial malaise that caused the company's stock to crumble. He has promised his business strategy will generate more online ad sales and increase Yahoo's net revenue by at least 25 percent in 2009 and 2010. Yahoo's net revenue has recently been rising about 12 percent a year, far behind Google's first-quarter pace of 46 percent.

Besides imploring Yahoo to set a sales price, Icahn on Friday reiterated an earlier demand for Yahoo to eliminate an employee severance plan that could trigger $2.4 billion in additional payments if Microsoft bought the company at $35 per share.

The estimated costs of the plan, adopted 12 days after Microsoft's initial bid, surfaced earlier this week when a Delaware court unsealed documents in a Yahoo shareholder lawsuit alleging the company improperly tried to avoid a takeover.

Yahoo once again defended the severance program as a good thing for shareholders, saying it will help retain top workers while the company's fate remains in limbo.

Icahn also dropped one of his candidates for Yahoo's board because the company now has only nine directors instead of the 10 that were in place when the investor first mounted his challenge. With the change, Keith Meister — one of Icahn's business associates — is no longer seeking a spot on Yahoo's board. 
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