[Jason]

Yahoo Inc. will appoint activist investor Carl Icahn and two of his nominees to its board, defusing a proxy battle showdown and making an immediate deal with Microsoft Corp. less likely. The settlement with Icahn, announced Monday, came just 11 days before Yahoo's Aug. 1 annual shareholders meeting. Icahn had originally sought to replace the entire board with his own nominees and oust Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang.

But Icahn's campaign appeared to have failed to win backing from key shareholders such as Legg Mason fund manager Bill Miller, who said Friday that he would support Yahoo's board. Legg owned 4.4 percent of Yahoo, according to recent filings. Icahn failed to convince many investors that if he had won control of Yahoo at the upcoming annual meeting, that he had any alternative for turning the business around, other than to sell it in part or in whole to Microsoft.

View: The full story @ CRN