Big fight, little fallout after Icahn battles

The colorful corporate raider, who has been locked in a public feud with Yahoo over its rejection of Microsoft Corp.'s takeover attempt, spent more than $1.5 billion to amass a 5 percent stake in Yahoo and snag the board seats. But without the support of all-important institutional investors, his impact after winning similar fights has been muted.

"Icahn's strategy is get in, make money and get out," said Thomas Lys, a professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management who teaches about mergers and acquisitions.

The 72-year-old Wall Street veteran, whose movement to amass shares has been known to make some executives sweat, sits on at least seven boards and has hand-picked surrogates serving on many others, according to regulatory filings.

Many of those seats--like the two he picked up this spring for his nominees on Motorola Inc.'s board--were acquired after Icahn locked horns with executives during expensive and public proxy battles.

But so far, his impact on Motorola has been minimal.

The Schaumburg, Ill.-based cell phone maker agreed to get Icahn's input on the planned separation of its mobile devices operations into a freestanding company and the ongoing search for the division's chief executive.

In exchange, Icahn agreed not to solicit proxies at the company's annual meeting and to dismiss litigation he filed against the company.

Critics say Icahn can be little more than a distraction, especially for troubled companies like Motorola that are already in the midst of a massive turnaround.

"Motorola is changing itself at a DNA level and when it finishes over the next year or so, it's going to be a very different company," said Jeff Kagan, an Atlanta-based independent telecommunications industry analyst. "And instead of just focusing on developing the best company strategy and preparing a win for the future, they now have to focus on all these short-term issues with the investors. I don't know if it works."