Carl Icahn joined the Board of Directors at Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) in July 2008. This was shortly after Icahn highly criticized the Yahoo! Board of Directors for their negligence in making an acquisition agreement with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). Icahn bought and sold many Yahoo! shares ever since.

The reason why Icahn is leaving the Yahoo! Board of Directors is because he wanted to spend more time on other investments he made. “I don’t believe that it is necessary at this time to have an activist on the board of Yahoo and currently my attention is focused on other matters,” stated Icahn. Carol Bartz is “doing a great job” added Icahn.

Yahoo! and Microsoft recently struck a deal too. Microsoft Corporation’s Bing.com search engine will power Yahoo!’s various online properties including the homepage Yahoo.com. The deal is still under the regulatory approval process. Icahn owns 4.5% in Yahoo! financially based on stock.