Icahn Considering Merits Of Yahoo, Google Pact

While it doesn’t represent a quick exit from his holdings in Yahoo with a tidy profit, billionaire investor Carl Icahn did not dismiss the ad deal between the two search advertising companies.

Icahn laid the groundwork for a proxy fight to toss out Yahoo’s board and replace it with a group that would be more amenable to buyout offer from Microsoft. Yahoo declared an end to talks with Microsoft, opting instead for an ad pact with Google.

Yahoo expects a boost to its bottom line of some $800 million in the first year with Google’s superior performing ads alongside Yahoo search results. The potential has Icahn in a mildly complimentary mode, as Icahn said in Reuters.

“While the Google deal is not the same as an offer of $34.375 per share for Yahoo, I am continuing to study it, and it might have some merit,” Icahn said in the report. “I continue to be extremely disappointed with the Yahoo management, but the Google deal might have some merit and seems to be better then the alternative deal proposed by Microsoft.”

Yahoo will open on Wall Street at $23.15, 32 cents off its Friday close. It opened at $26.33 on June 12, hours ahead of announcing the Google deal and the end of Microsoft discussions.

“I believe it puts us on a faster track to creating stockholder value and strengthening our advertising leadership,” Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang said of the Google pact. “We