Icahn Urges Yahoo-Microsoft Search Deal

Now there's no Google ad deal, Yahoo director Carl Icahn is once again urging the company to sell its search business to Microsoft.

Carl Icahn won his seat on the board by staging a rebellion against Yahoo’s decision not to entertain Microsoft’s takeover bid earlier this year. Now that the company’s ad deal with Google has fallen apart, he’s taken up a somewhat familiar refrain, suggesting that Yahoo sell Microsoft its search business.

On CNBC on Monday night he said:

"I have said publicly and will continue to say it… I believe, as a large shareholder… that eventually Yahoo should, if it’s available, make a deal with Microsoft to sell the search business."

He noted that Yahoo could “save a fortune” with Microsoft operating its search business, according to CNET. And Microsoft might not have entirely closed the door on a deal, either. Just last month, Microsoft’s chief executive Steve Ballmer noted that an acquisition “still made sense” for shareholders in both companies.