When Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo at nearly $48 billion USD many analyst and shareholders felt the offer was more than generous with about a 60% premium on the company’s stock price at the time. Despite the premium Yahoo’s board wanted more money from Microsoft.

Microsoft agreed to increase its offer a bit, yet Yahoo’s board still said it wasn’t enough leading to Microsoft walking away and a flurry of shareholder lawsuits over the Yahoo board’s actions. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn sent a letter to the Yahoo board of directors saying in short that they sabotaged the Microsoft takeover bid.

The Yahoo board issued a statement basically saying Icahn’s accusations ignore this factual record. Despite that many are leaning towards Icahn’s view since Yahoo seemed to always be looking for more than what Microsoft was offering at the time. Icahn says details of exactly how far Yahoo’s board went to sabotage the takeover bid came out in court documents from a shareholder lawsuit.

Via BBC News