The Activist Investor: Sell Yahoo!

Jerry Yang and Sue Decker also need to be replaced. They have carried on Terry Semel's Yahoo! There is little different about the company today vs. two years ago. An outsider needs to come in and clean house. There is still great talent within the company and great assets.

I wish the current Yahoo! longs well, and I suggest they find inspiration from Gordon Crawford of Capital Research Global Investors (now a 10% owner of Yahoo!). Crawford has been absolutely on the mark in his criticisms of the board (and correctly recognized that there was a major vote-counting error that understated the degree of anger aimed at the board at last August's annual meeting).

If you're a long investor in Yahoo! and think you can free-ride off the activist efforts of Crawford (or Carl Icahn), this movie will end in tears. This board will retain power and this company will drift rudderless. Passive investors who keep doing what they've been doing will keep getting what they've been getting from Yahoo!.