Yahoo Inc. Chief Jerry Yang sought to rally his employees, urging them to stay focused on their work as the besieged Web portal marches into a high-profile proxy war with billionaire investor Carl Icahn.

U.S. stock futures edged up Friday, gaining some support from better-than-expected figures on housing starts, though oil prices surged on the back of Goldman Sachs' forecast that futures have further to rise.

Whether playing the role of corporate raider or white-knight activist, Carl Icahn is no stranger to pushing for change at the companies in which he holds big stakes. The experiences of Motorola, BEA, Time Warner, ImClone and others bear testimony.

Wealthy investor activist Carl Icahn is launching a proxy fight to replace the board of Yahoo, saying the Net bellwether acted 'irrationally' in rejecting a buyout offer from Microsoft recently.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - The battle for Internet pioneer Yahoo Inc. has brought two top Goldman Sachs technology investment bankers and billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn back together on opposite sides of the negotiating table.

A letter from Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock to Carl Icahn, released late Thursday in reponse to an earlier letter from Icahn detailing plans to mount a boardroom coup and reopen negotatiations with Microsoft.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) --- Jana Partners LLC, an activist hedge fund firm run by Barry Rosenstein, generated big gains after CBS Corp. agreed to buy Internet news provider CNet Networks Inc. for $1.8 billion in cash on Thursday.

Paulson & Co., a $33 billion hedge fund firm run by John Paulson, says it will support Carl Icahn's proxy fight with Yahoo Inc., bringing another billionaire activist investor into the technology takeover standoff.

Blockbuster swings back to a first-quarter profit, as the video-rental chain's domestic same-store sales ishow mprovement for the first time in five years.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Microsoft Corp., the software giant that saw its acquisition offer brusquely turned away by Yahoo Inc. barely two weeks ago, suddenly finds itself in a much more agreeable bargaining position - if it chooses to come back to the table.