Billionaire Dan Loeb is a shareholder and member of Yahoo’s board. In 2011 Loeb acquired a 5% share in the company. Soon after that he insisted the company make “sweeping changes” and remove a number of directors from the board, changes that ultimately increased the company’s stock price. The businessman played a very big part in removing former CEO Carol Bartz and takes credit for the hiring of current CEO Marissa Mayer.

Now the Yahoo board member is selling back some of his shares and resigning from his post along with three other directors at the end of July. On Monday it was announced that Yahoo will buy back 40 million shares for $1,2 billion (R11 billion) from Loeb.

Loeb said:

Since our Board’s rigorous search led us to hire Marissa Mayer as CEO, Yahoo!’s stock price has nearly doubled, delivering significant value for shareholders.

I’m confident that with Marissa at the helm and her team’s focus on innovation and engaging users, Yahoo! has a bright future.

Loeb is the founder and CEO of the hedge fund Third Point, who along with two other members of the hedge fund were appointed to the board of Yahoo only a year ago. The company’s choices were largely influenced by Loeb after his appointment. That made Loeb’s investment in Yahoo “one of the most high-profile and successful investments” in his career. Brian Wieser, a senior analyst with Pivotal Research Group said:

Third Point was the catalyst for much of the change that the company has undergone over the past year. Our read is that the reduced stake and Board departures mean that aspects of Yahoo which benefitted from a longer-term view of the company will likely become much shorter-term in nature.

[Source: Mashable]