am I right in thinking that this guy is just like those "carpetbaggers" here in the uk that joined builing societies to convince them to demutualize, make a quick profit off the shares, and laugh while everyone else got a bad deal?

Do something to make the stock go up so I can sell at a big profit, I don't care what and I don't care what happens later I just want the big bag of cash I thought I was going to get from MS buying Yahoo.

"Lemme onto the friggin' Board you b-b-bitch! I only wanna see ma profits!"

"No, yez cannat come on the Board, Cahn. Ye'll bray the bizness plan and the whole friggin' company with it! And then ye'll blow the money on more corporate raidin'!"

"F-f-f-fuckin' b-b-bitch!"

Etc.

Is that he's managed to become extremely rich and powerful, simply on the basis of his never laying off on the letter writing, no matter what. Even if the letters themselves are poorly thought out, nearly incoherent on occasion, the success rate is astounding. A bit like a paper blitzkrieg-- the boards of the companies he attacks can never regain the initiative, all they can do is respond to him. Eventually, it becomes more profitable for the shareholders to just give Icahn his way.

The sooner someone replaces with someone even halfway competent the better. As a business plan for Yahoo, sacking Yang strikes me as a good half of the problem solved - that's clearly more business plan than Yang has himself. Especially since he refused the best offer for the company that he's ever likely to see without even considering it. Google has beaten Yahoo in the search wars, and unless Yang realises this and does some radical things (like selling to Microsoft) the company in the long term is pretty doomed and will simply decay share price until someone does buy it.

If Icahn loses, then Yahoo would be a great stock to short - it's certainly going nowhere.

I reckon, once he's beheaded Yahoo, and made it into a shape where the only end game is a fire sale to Microsoft at any price, they'd offer him $20 a share. They're not stupid, there's no other bidders, and no reason to pay more for a company that's been prepped only for a quick sale.

I always think that once they start doing insults, it's an admission they've lost the argument. And with Icahn now on the insult stage it means he's lost and he knows it.