Yahoo’s Yang In The Line Of Fire

Yahoo investor Carl Icahn is now directly targeting CEO Jerry Yang in his battle to replace the company’s leadership.

Icahn tells the Wall Street Journal he’d want Yang out if he won the right to remove the board of directors.

“It’s no longer a mystery to me why Microsoft’s offer isn’t around,” he told the paper. “How can Yahoo keep saying they’re willing to negotiate and sell the company on the one hand, while at the same time they’re completely sabotaging the process without telling anyone?”

The Journal says Yahoo’s board is scheduled to meet later today.

Meanwhile this week, new details are being released about Yang’s actions during the Microsoft negotiations. The documents, unsealed by a Delaware judge, show that Yang tried to implement an employee severance plan that would have upped the price tag considerably for Microsoft. The Associated Press says an outside consultant “questioned the plan’s generous benefits,” and now others are questioning whether the move was meant to discourage Microsoft from increasing its offer. Yahoo, not surprisingly, did not want these documents to be released.