Activist Investor: Yahoo!'s Board Irrelevant

Icahn surprised many this week when he revealed he's lined up the tacit support of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Icahn now needs to address that second concern. If he can get former head of AOL, Jon Miller, and former head of Fox Interactive Media, Ross Levinsohn, to agree to step in (as he's reportedly trying to do), it would solve the problem well. I expect Icahn will announce some sort of solution for this "leadership" problem in the coming 10 days.

There's no question that Icahn's looking increasingly strong in this campaign, when that wasn't a case only a week ago. Yahoo! knows this. The company's management should begin serious heart-to-heart compromise discussions with Icahn, if it hasn't already.

I give shareholders more credit than Marty Lipton. This Yahoo! battle demonstrates that shareholders can weigh promises of hoped-for long-term benefits from a management team that has lost credibility with the real possibility of a near-term premium for their shares, and make a fair judgment.

It's been painful watching this awkward dance between Yahoo!, Microsoft and Icahn over the last six months. Microsoft needs Yahoo! to make its Online Services Division relevant, and Yahoo! shareholders need to wake up from this four-year nightmare. With any hope, the end is near.