The Man Who Helped Hire Marissa Mayer Resigns From Yahoo Board

Dan Loeb won.

Loeb, an activist shareholder and member of Yahoo's board, was largely responsible for pushing out one of Yahoo's CEOs and hiring current CEO Marissa Mayer, boosting the company's stock in the process. Now, he has agreed to sell back most of his shares and resign from the board with a hefty profit

Yahoo announced Monday that it will buy back 40 million shares — more than half Loeb's stake in the company — for $1.2 billion or $29.11 per share. Loeb and three of the directors he nominated to the board will resign at the end of this month.

The billionaire founder and CEO of the hedge fund Third Point acquired a 5% stake in Yahoo in late 2011 and quickly started pressuring the company to take on new management. In one very critical letter to Yahoo's board, Loeb insisted that Yahoo make "sweeping changes" and focus more on products, leverage its assets in Alibaba and push out several directors from the board who were tied to former CEO Carol Bartz