San Francisco — In a move expected to fuel speculation over Yahoo Inc.’s search for a new chief executive — Corporate raider and billionaire investor Carl Icahn augmented his stake in Yahoo, has bought up close to 7 million additional shares of the Internet Company over three days this week, paying around $67 million, according to regulatory filings.
Icahn, a billionaire hedge-fund manager who now holds a seat on Yahoo’s board, acquired 6.77 million additional shares of Yahoo stock during November 24-26 for 67 million dollars, now owns 75.6 million of the company’s shares, or a 5.4 percent stake valued at around $870 million based on Yahoo’s closing share price on Friday, according to the documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and dated Wednesday.
The company’s stock moved up 93 cents, or nearly 9%, to $11.51 in the shortened trading session after Icahn, a Yahoo board member who has been pushing a strategy shift or a sale to Microsoft Corp., said he had bought about 6.8 million shares.
A Securities and Exchange Commission filing showed that Icahn had paid an average of $9.88 a share from Monday through Wednesday, boosting his holdings by about $67 million.
In his original $1.5 billion investment in Yahoo, Icahn paid an average of about $25 dollars per share.
Earlier this year, Icahn threatened to launch a proxy fight against Yahoo and oust Chief Executive Jerry Yang in an effort to push the company to accept Microsoft Corp.’s $47.5 billion acquisition offer. He eventually reached an agreement with Yahoo wherein he got a seat on the board last summer, and the number of seats was expanded, with Yahoo appointing two new members from Icahn’s slate of candidates.
Among his other demands was that Yang step down. Following the deal, Yang said that he welcomed Icahn’s “bright viewpoint.” Earlier this month, Yang said he was stepping down as CEO. The company is searching for his replacement.
Yang’s dismissal of the 33-dollar-a-share offer for Yahoo earned him the ire of Icahn and many other shareholders and Yahoo has since been trading at around 10-12 dollars a share.
Icahn started collecting Yahoo shares during the company’s merger talks with Microsoft. The sudden shift in strategy by the billionaire investor came just days after Yang announced he was stepping down as chief executive of Yahoo less than 18 months after taking over the helm of the Sunnyvale, California, company.
This is the first time that he has significantly upped his stake in Yahoo. Icahn, who could not be reached for comment, is one of the loudest voices calling for a change in its direction. He and two of his picks became directors in an August settlement that ended a bruising proxy fight.
Yahoo has lately been losing its position over the Internet to companies such as Google and social networks like MySpace and Facebook and the economic slowdown has hit the firm particularly hard as advertisers cut back on spending.
Last week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting: “We are done with all acquisition discussions with Yahoo.” Ballmer added after making two unsuccessful bids, says he is no more interested in buying the whole company, though he has expressed interest in the search business.
Shares of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo closed Friday at $11.51, up 93 cents, or about 9 percent. The stock market was open for a shortened session, following the Thanksgiving holiday.