Yahoos inevitable settlement with Icahn (at Fortune)

By Yi-Wyn Yen The only thing surprising about the resolution between Yahoo’s board of directors and activist investor Carl Icahn was that it didn’t happen sooner. The proxy campaign that Icahn launched nearly three months ago to eliminate Yahoo’s board and replace it with his own cronies at the Aug. 1 shareholder meeting came to an end Monday when the two sides finally agreed to a compromise. Proxy experts say they expected a settlement, which will give Icahn three seats on an expanded 11-member Yahoo board, several weeks ago. “The end game was fairly obvious. It should have been obvious that the company wasn’t going to pitch a shutout. At the same time, it should have been obvious to Carl that he would be unlikely to get a majority vote,” said Chris Young, the M&A research director of shareholder advisory firm RiskMetrics... [read full story]