Yahoo Gives Carl Icahn +2 Invite: Your Table Is Ready

Carl Icahn doesn't have to storm the gate after all -- he's been invited into the big house. Is Yahoo letting a fox into the chicken coop? Is this all about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer?

Or ... has Yahoo effectively inoculated itself against unpredictable sturm und drang by throwing Icahn and his 5 percent stake a bone?

Icahn gets a minority position on the board -- he and two other hand-picked candidates will join -- in return for his agreement to withdraw his throw-the-bums-out slate and back the rest of the existing board in the Aug. 1 shareholder's vote.

Exit, shotgun wedding. Enter, marriage of convenience. Who says Jerry & Co. can't negotiate with a gun to its head? Even Shatner would be proud.

Of course, this development follows news that influential mutual fund manager Bill Miller of Legg Mason said Friday that he and the 4.4 percent stake he controls would be backing the Yahoo board in the proxy battle.

To review: A mere one week ago, Icahn wrote this to Yahoo's shareholders about his soon-to-be new best friends:

"Over the years I have attempted to make changes at many companies but I have yet to see a company distort, omit and twist events and facts in the manner that Yahoo! has done in their press release issued Saturday night, July 12."

Yahoo has been equally complimentary, of course:

"How can Yahoo! stockholders trust Mr. Icahn to deliver what he claims he can deliver when his actions have been so contradictory -and when all he has delivered so far is a risky proposal of questionable value from his new friends at Microsoft?"

That was then, of course.

We'd love to see the NDA that board members are no doubt required to sign so that private deliberations -- which involve proprietary, market-sensitive information -- aren't divulged to third parties like, say, Microsoft. Will they be bugging the e-mails now, too?

All kidding aside, the non-cynics among us might see some actual common sense to all this. Icahn thinks he knows the business well enough to be sure of his own valuation and strategic plans, but being an insider might temper his views.

It's also possible that, assuming the board gives Icahn and his acolytes the accordance their membership affords, he might actually be able to prick up some ears that so far have heard only sounds in an echo chamber.

The smoke continues to clear. We have noted (and so did Carl, btw) that the elephant in the room involves a certain number "33" these days.

It's a good thing that the warring parties are putting down their sticks and stones for now. For shareholders, this can't be a bad development.

See also:

• Yahoo: We Want You, We Want You Not