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Icahn, famed for forcing major corporations into strategy shifts, had spent millions of dollars building a 5% stake in Yahoo - a bid aimed at persuading other shareholders to replace Yahoo's board with executives open to a sale to Microsoft.

However, earlier this month Yahoo moved to head off a shareholder showdown, by handing Icahn three seats on its board.

In his blog, Icahn said: "The proxy fight is over and it will not do shareholders or Yahoo any good to have the annual meeting turn into a media event for no purpose.

"Last week, I realised it was impossible to gain enough support from the large institutions to win a majority of the Yahoo directorships. In today's corporate governance system, where large mutual funds control so much of the stock, it is extremely difficult to oust an entire board, no matter how strongly a large number of shareholders feel about the board's previous actions.

"Realising I could not gain control, I saw no point in spending the final two weeks in a debilitating fight, where little would be accomplished except to build animosity between both camps and the end result would be no better than the compromise that was reached.

"A few days ago, I met with both Jerry Yang and Roy Bostock and I believe both genuinely wish that we will be able to work together to enhance value.  While we still disagree on many points, I have great hope ‘this will be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.'"