Yahoo!'s Upside: Only Angry Shareholders

Compare that to his comments about two weeks earlier, when he accused Yahoo! of distorting the truth about a search deal that he and Microsoft had jointly presented (in lieu of an all-out merger), only to be rebuffed. Previous open letters to shareholders from Icahn portrayed Yang as incompetent and accused the board of botching a merger deal with Microsoft.

Now, because of a compromise reached with Icahn last week, the board will make room for his candidates by expanding the total number of seats to 11, but that will happen only after Friday's meeting and shareholders will get no say.

Icahn will occupy one seat while the board's nominating and governance committee will fill the remaining two by picking from a list of eight candidates from his original slate as well as Jonathan Miller, former Chairman and CEO of AOL, which is now owned by Time Warner(TWX Quote).

Although shareholders will still get a chance to cast their votes for the current board members -- all except for Robert Kotick, who recently stepped down as part of the compromise -- it's unlikely to change anything. Even if a majority withholds votes for a candidate, thus forcing him to submit a letter of resignation, it's still up to the board to decide whether or not to accept it.

At best, shareholders will be able to express their disenchantment with Yahoo! and its handling of the merger with Microsoft, which ultimately fell apart and drove down the company's stock price. Before Microsoft made its proposal on Jan. 31, Yahoo!'s shares traded at $19.18. They skyrocketed to nearly $30 after the proposal, then plummeted back to $20 once the deal was killed.