The potential for fireworks really ended when investor Carl Icahn realized he couldn’t convince the big institutional investors in Yahoo stock to chuck Yang and Bostock into the purple dustbin of history in favor of a new slate of directors.

Icahn gained a seat on the board, as Yahoo previously agreed to bring him on as a replacement for departing director Bobby Kotick, who has his days full managing Activision; that company merged with World of Warcraft’s publisher, Blizzard, in 2007.

Yahoo plans to name two more new directors by August 15, as they expand the board to 11 members. Not among them: Jonathan Miller, former CEO of AOL. The New York Post said Time Warner is holding Miller to a non-compete pact that keeps him on the tech sidelines until next March.

Miller’s potential place on Yahoo’s board of directors could be a step to replacing Yang as CEO. Yang’s presence as Terry Semel’s replacement has brought no joy to shareholders. The company’s stock fell 29 percent from the time Yang took over in June 2007.

Accounts of the meeting showed minimal interest from shareholders. CNBC live-blogged photos of lots of empty seats and trays piled high with untouched pastries along with its accounts of Decker, Bostock, and Yang addressing the attendees.

The proxy voting had long tallied up in favor of Yahoo’s board, leaving little drama to today’s meeting. As All Things D noted, not even all of Yahoo’s directors bothered to show up either.

A change announced by Yahoo gives them a little more time to try and find an alternative to being acquired by Microsoft. Under Yahoo’s bylaws, nominations to the board of directors had to take place by a March 14th deadline.

Yahoo’s newly amended bylaws moved that date to ten days following the announcement of the 2008 annual meeting of stockholders. As Yahoo has not announced that date yet, the move buys them some more time as CEO Jerry Yang scrambles to find anyone who can save the company from a takeover.

“To the extent that the extension of the nomination deadline has the effect of postponing the nomination of one or more directors by any party, it will allow Yahoo!’s board to continue to explore all of its strategic alternatives for maximizing value for stockholders without the distraction of a proxy contest,” Yahoo said in a statement.

ZDNet posted a copy of an email from Yang to Yahoo staffers, discussing the updated bylaw. “Why did we do this? In light of the current circumstances, this change removes an imminent deadline,” he said.

Yahoo won’t be able to put off the annual meeting forever, as a publicly traded company. A Bloomberg report noted that the company has to hold such a meeting every 13 months.

With their last meeting taking place on June 12, 2007, this pushes a meeting date out to mid-July. Yahoo announced that meeting on June 7th last year.