By Scott Morrison Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- Billionaire investor and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) director Carl Icahn said Wednesday that he had "no knowledge" of any effort by former AOL chief Jonathan Miller to buy all or part of Yahoo.
"I have no knowledge of what Miller is doing. I'm still not sure what he's doing," Icahn said on CNBC. "I'm not involved whatsoever with what he's doing."
The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday reported that Miller has been trying to raise money from private-equity investors and sovereign-wealth funds to purchase all or part of the struggling Internet giant.
The newspaper said Miller believes he can fashion a deal that would be worth about $20 to $22 a share to Yahoo shareholders, these people say, which would involve raising about $28 billion to $30 billion.
Shares in Yahoo closed flat at $11.50 on Wednesday and were down 2% in recent after-hours activity.
Icahn also said he did not think shareholders would be interested in selling part of Yahoo to Miller, even at a premium, although he said that the board would be legally bound to consider such an offer. He added that he would personally be against it as a shareholder.
Icahn, who became a Yahoo director earlier this year after threatening a proxy fight to oust the entire board, last week raised his stake in Yahoo to 5.5%.
Icahn told CNBC that he did so at this time because the window for board members to buy shares in their companies is only open for a specific period every three months.
Icahn also reiterated his position that Yahoo ought to strike a search deal with erstwhile suitor Microsoft Corp. (MSFT). But he added there were "no discussions that we are having now that I'm aware of."
The WSJ noted that it was unclear whether Microsoft, which earlier this year tried to buy Yahoo and has since indicated it is still open to a search deal, would be involved in any deal put together by Miller.
Yahoo is currently seeking a new CEO to follow Jerry Yang, who recently said we would step down as soon as a replacement was named.
- By Scott Morrison; Dow Jones Newswires; 415-765-6118; scott.morrison@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 03, 2008 17:34 ET (22:34 GMT)

Publié le 03 Décembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones