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The survival chances of Yahoo's board could diminish greatly if powerful investor Gordon Crawford decides Carl Icahn's proposed slate of directors looks better than the current Yahoo board.

In the deep waters of high finance, a few really big sharks cruise in search of tasty critters to devour. A few, like Icahn, T. Boone Pickens, and now Crawford have broken the surface with their impressive dorsal fins to shatter the nerves around Yahoo's Amity Island.

Jerry Yang will need a much bigger boat if, as All Things D observed, Capital Research Global Investors’ Crawford opts to throw in his lot with corporate raider Icahn and company. Kara Swisher cited several sources regarding a recent, less than pleasant, chat Crawford and Yang had while their respective posses looked on from the sidelines.

Yang and Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock repaid the executives who recently left the company with sharp jabs in the back, as reward for their previous service. Those departures in the wake of another Yahoo reorganization should not be blamed on the present leadership, so Yang and the board seems to believe.

Crawford evidently isn't having any of it, and may be leaning more toward Icahn's sweeping proposal, one that aims at maximizing shareholder value. As if on cue, Microsoft re-entered the picture and said they're willing to talk deals with Yahoo. Just not this current bunch of Yahoo leaders.

It could be Crawford who ends up influencing a change of leadership at Yahoo, and perhaps a change of ownership as well.