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T. Boone Pickens dumps Yahoo stake

Frustrated with the Microhoo saga, corporate raider T. Boone Pickens has sold his entire stake of 10 million shares in the Internet pioneer, according to reports.

Dawn Kawamoto Former Staff writer, CNET News
Dawn Kawamoto covered enterprise security and financial news relating to technology for CNET News.
Dawn Kawamoto

Yahoo dipped below $20 a share Tuesday morning, following a report in the San Francisco Chronicle that T. Boone Pickens dumped his entire stake of 10 million shares.

Shares of the Internet pioneer fell as low as $19.71 in morning trading, coming within a breath of the $19.18 that the stock closed at on the day before Microsoft announced its unsolicited buyout bid of $31 a share. Microsoft later bumped it up to $33 a share, which was rejected.

Pickens jumped into the stock in May, following an announcement by investor activist Carl Icahn that he would wage a proxy contest to pressure Yahoo into accepting a deal with Microsoft. Icahn, however, reached a settlement last week with Yahoo.

"I think that Yahoo management was pathetic," Pickens reportedly said during the Chronicle editorial board meeting he was addressing.

Pickens told the Chronicle that he sold his shares at a loss, as his patience for a deal between the two companies grew thin. The billionaire investor declined to reveal the size of his loss, according to the report.

Yahoo's annual shareholders meeting is scheduled for Friday.