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Looks like the story to watch is quickly becoming the story of the day.  Early rumors of Carl Icahn buying shares of Yahoo stock and gearing up for a proxy fight are now being supported by widespread reports that cite “sources familiar” or “involved in the matter.”  From Reuters to the WSJ, and all across the blogosphere of financial news, the news rooms and pundits are buzzing.

The reports for now provide the following set of facts (or suspected facts):

•Icahn is preparing to nominate a slate of 10, possibly 12, directors by Thursday’s deadline.
•One of the nominees is expected to be former Viacom CEO (1987 to 1996), and past Icahn compatriot, Frank Biondi.
•Icahn is proceeding with his strategy without any assurances from Microsoft that they’ll revisit merger discussions in a friendly deal if an Icahn controlled board initiates it.
•DF King has been retained to work on proxy solicitation, or prepare accordingly, should a proxy fight begin.
•Icahn is holding more than $1b of Yahoo stock.  Rough estimates are that he has at least 50million shares.

THE ICAHN ROADMAP: WHERE ARE WE HEADED?
Views can be deceptive. At first glance, the shareholdings and press leaks (which may be as engineered as the share purchases) have all the makings of a straightforward corporate raid.  Icahn buys shares, rallies support among institutional investors privately, builds buzz in the press to add additional support, then uses the consortium to replace the board and sell out. Click to Read More

Acquisitions and corporate reorganizations can be expensive and time consuming.   Electronic Arts, which has worked through both in the past year, demonstrated just how much Tuesday with the release of Q4 and yearend earnings.

Partly due to onetime charges, the game publisher recorded a quarterly loss of $94m.  The good news, on an adjusted basis, they earned $30m (9 cents a share), up from $19m last year.  The results were also more than good enough to surpass analyst consensus expectations.

By the Numbers:
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With a stock price down to the mid 20s and Microsoft saying they’ve “been there, done that” and aren’t coming back, there are more than a few Yahoo shareholders second guessing whether Yahoo management overplayed their hand.  They’re wondering if holding out was a mistake.  For billionaire investor Carl Icahn, their mistake may be his opportunity.

Reports are circulating that Icahn has bought as much as 50million shares of Yahoo stock in the past week, an amount equal to about 3.5% of the company.  There are rumors he’s buying more too.  CNBC, in fact, reported Tuesday that Icahn may be gearing up for a proxy fight aimed at seating a new board and resuscitating Microsoft’s now scuttled takeover bid.

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There’s no question the current and next generation of mobile phones, products like the iPhone and RIM’s newly minted Blackberry Bold, have grand ambitions to advance and change their industry.  There’s also no question cottage industries are popping up to thrive on their coattails.

Where there is developing industry, there are investors.   In March, with Apple’s support, venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers (KPCB) pledged a sum of $100m for an investment initiative focus on forward thinking iPhone related software and services.  Now, Research in Motion is following suit with an investment focus of their own.

Monday, RIM announced the formation of a$150million fund to invest in services and applications for their rival Blackberry platform.  Canadian VC firms JLA Ventures and RBC Venture Partners are lending expertise to manage the fund. The fund will be called the Blackberry Partners Fund.

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The video gaming industry and the movie industry share a lot of common ground – narrative techniques, visual style, entertainment – but no factor is more influential to either industry than the importance of good titles.  It’s a little like the line from the movie “Field of Dreams” :  “If you build it they will come.”  If you have good quality games, you draw audiences and build money making franchises.  But if you make a dud? Revenues are sure to slump.

Game makers Midway and THQ haven’t been able to find the working formula and missed with earning as a result.  Activision seems to have it locked in.

Thanks again to a surging game industry and phenomenal sales from the Guitar Hero and Call of Duty game franchises, Activision turned in stellar financial results Thursday.

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There are a handful of surefire ways to know you’ve become a pop culture (or geek culture star): a major magazine cover shoot, being spoofed in a movie or TV show, or even playing yourself in a commercial.  Computer programmer Shawn Fanning can check all three off the list. From jokes that he stole the concept for the original Napster in 2003’s The Italian Job to a recent VW commercial, he’s had it all.

What he hasn’t had is an entrepreneurial home run; a company that’s succeeded. The original Napster file sharing service shifted the course of the music industry but as a business it wilted in the legal crosshairs of the music world.  Fanning’s follow up project Snocap was hyped to be a sophomore step up with its business to business music services.  That too, however, fell victim to tough times; a casualty of the antiquated DRM encryption environment that enveloped digital music sales.   Snocap sold out to iMeem officially in a fire sale last month.  The deal was reported back in February.

For all the efforts, the music industry just wasn’t proving a treasure trove for Fanning.   In his third startup, he shifted to gaming and now it looks like the adjustment may finally get him some entrepreneurial credit to go with his pop culture status.

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The Superhero business is booming.  Marvel Entertainments first self produced movie, Iron Man, dominated the weekend box office earning an estimated $201m in global receipts in its debut.  At the same time, on Wall Street, the company didn’t fare badly either.  Marvel posted better a better than expected quarter and raised 2008 guidance. These numbers are only a small part of a bigger story.

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