Full speed ahead for Icahn, Microhoo

All the papers are reporting that epic green mailer Carl Icahn is forging ahead with plans to nominate a clean slate of Yahoo board members. The goal is to force the company back to the bargaining table with Microsoft and eventually into Microsoft itself.

The deadline for board nominations is Thursday.

Icahn apparently thinks Microsoft is still jonesing for Yahoo, although it’s unclear to others whether Microsoft’s rejection of a deal is final.

When the Microhoo talks calmed down a couple of long-time Microsoft resellers said it was time for the company to reevaluate its priorities.

Microsoft’s consumer push and it’s growing cloud computing/SaaS fever have distracted the company from core businesses, they say.

“Microsoft has been spread miles thin,” said one long time partner who specializes in database and business intelligence work. “They have hurt themselves on Vista and business apps while they’ve been chasing Google,” he noted.

Barbara Darrow can be reached at bdarrow@techtarget.com.