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New York Times – The billionaire financier Carl C. Icahn put another $250 million into his hedge fund at the beginning of the year after suffering further losses in the fourth quarter on investments in Motorola and Yahoo, according to a letter he sent to investors.
The Icahn Fund Ltd. was down about 33 percent through the end of January after plummeting 22 percent in the fourth quarter, according to the letter. After receiving more than $1 billion in redemption requests from investors, Mr. Icahn put $250 million of his own cash into the fund in November to avoid selling shares to meet the redemptions.
Trying to instill confidence in his investors, Mr. Icahn decided to make another $250 million cash injection into the fund on Jan. 1. Still, over the last five months, Icahn Capital’s funds under management have shrunk by about $2.5 billion.
The losses are likely to affect the publicly traded Icahn Enterprises fund, which reports earnings on Thursday.
Reuters – Internet firm Yahoo Inc is "not opposed" to doing a deal that would potentially sell its search business, Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen said on Wednesday.
But he said the search business is deeply intertwined with Yahoo’s other online products and properties, and so any deal, whether a partnership or a sale, would be done for the right reasons and the right economics.
"It’s extremely difficult to draw a line down the middle of the organization and split it into two pieces," Jorgensen told the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet conference.
He did not mention specifically Microsoft Corp, which has repeatedly said it was interested in doing a search deal with Yahoo to compete against market leader Google Inc.
Yahoo News - Apple Inc chief and tech visionary Steve Jobs will take a leave of absence till end-June because of health problems "more complex" than thought, backtracking on reassurances, stunning investors and sending its shares skidding 10 percent on Wednesday.
Jobs, a pancreatic cancer survivor, dropped his bombshell in a cryptic announcement on Wednesday — only nine days after he soothed jumpy investors somewhat by saying his dramatic weight loss over the past seven months was due to an easily treatable hormone imbalance. He had promised to remain at the helm throughout his treatment.
Bloomberg – Yahoo! Inc. Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz, who took the job yesterday, won’t get much of a honeymoon with the Internet company’s investors.
Shareholders are looking for Yahoo to rekindle talks with Microsoft Corp. or possibly sell off assets — anything that earns them a quick return. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said as recently as last week that he’s still open to a partnership with Yahoo, something that may be first on investors’ agenda.
