The shoot-out at the OK Corral is over and the hired guns are leaving town.
Paulson & Co, once among Yahoo’s half-dozen biggest institutional shareholders and a backer of Carl Icahn’s attempt to pressure the company into a Microsoft deal this Spring, has sold most of its 3.7 per cent interest. In a filing today, the New York-based investor revealed that its stake had dropped to 15m shares at the end of June, from 50m three months before.
This comes in the wake of T Boone Pickens’ disclosure that he had packed his bags as well, selling his 10m share stake at a loss.
This is the part in the movie where the embattled townsfolk bandage their wounds and think about repairing the damage. At the back of their minds, though, they always know that the gunslingers could return, and the fighting next time will only get uglier.

