Professor Joseph A. Grundfest is quoted in a San Jose Mercury article about Carl Icahn's motives for entering the Microsoft-Yahoo battle:

For billionaire investor Carl Icahn, 4 percent of a company isn't just a sizable stake. It's a sledge hammer and a crowbar, combined.

...

Those who have followed his career say Icahn, who recently bought the equivalent of 59 million shares of Yahoo and is waging a proxy campaign to replace its directors, could emerge a winner even if he doesn't force a sale to Microsoft.

"He'll succeed with any strategy that gives him an exit at a share price higher than what he's paid," said law professor Joseph Grundfest, co-director of the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University.