Hedge fund, corporate raider sign onto Yahoo-Icahn battle
Third Point and T. Boone Pickens are snapping up millions of Yahoo shares and throwing their support behind Carl Icahn's proxy fight.
Hedge fund Third Point and corporate raider T. Boone Pickens are the latest investors to snap up millions of Yahoo shares and throw their support behind billionaire investor Carl Icahn's proxy fight against the Internet pioneer, according to reports.
Third Point has recently amassed more than 5 million shares in Yahoo and has thrown its support behind Icahn's proxy fight, according to a Reuters report.
Citing a source, the report said the hedge fund could increase its stake up to 10 million shares in the company.
Meanwhile, corporate raider T. Boone Pickens is taking his lead from Carl Icahn, snapping up 10 million shares of Yahoo, according to a report Tuesday from CNBC. (Note: Becky Quick's report notes the Yahoo tidbit at the very end of her report on oil.)
Pickens is no ordinary corporate raider. He is a legendary oilman, who became known in the 1980s for corporate takeovers and makes the Forbes list of billionaires year after year. He is the founder and chairman of hedge fund BP Capital. He very publicly backed the so-called Swift Boat veterans who worked to derail John Kerry's presidential bid in 2004. And Pickens recently has become enamored with wind power. He is building a massive wind farm in Texas.
Third Point and Pickens join the likes of hedge fund Paulson & Co., which last week announced it held 50 million shares of Yahoo and would support Icahn's dissident slate.
Icahn, who last week unveiled his proxy slate, is seeking to unseat Yahoo's current board of directors at its July 3 shareholders meeting.
The shareholder activist is hoping to use his proxy slate as a means to push Yahoo and Microsoft back to the negotiating table to strike a deal. And although Icahn may claim partial success in driving the parties back into talks, it has yet to be seen whether it's the type of deal Icahn had in mind.