Legg-Mason to Back Yahoo! Board

While in February Legg-Mason recommended that Yahoo! take a Microsoft offer, it said it should only do so if Microsoft boosted their offer to $40+ a share. In the upcoming fight that will likely occur at the August 1st Yahoo! shareholders meeting, Bill Miller, chief investment officer of Legg-Mason - although not guaranteeing to vote in that direction - said that it was his firm's "intention" to vote its 4.4% stake in Yahoo! in favor of the company's existing board.

Of course, in February Legg-Mason owned 6% of Yahoo!, so we see someone's been dumping shares.

In a statement, Miller said:

"We believe the current board acted with care and diligence when evaluating Microsoft's offers. We believe the board is independent and focused on value creation for long-term shareholders."

Carl Icahn is leading an effort to replace Yahoo!'s Board of Directors. Legg-Mason's backing definitely enhances the chances of Yahoo! being able to fend off that attempt.