WASHINGTON - Corporate raider Carl Icahn increased his stake in Yahoo following the decision of co-founder Jerry Yang to step down as head of the Internet firm, documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed.

Icahn acquired 6.77 million more shares of Yahoo stock November 24-26 for 67 million dollars, taking his stake in the firm to 5.4 percent, up from the 5.0 percent he owned previously, according to the documents filed with the SEC and dated Wednesday.

The move by the billionaire investor came just days after Yang announced he was stepping down as chief executive of Yahoo less than 18 months after taking over the helm of the Sunnyvale, California, company.

Icahn and Yang were involved in a very public dispute earlier this year when Yang rejected a 47-billion-dollar takeover bid by software giant Microsoft for the company he founded with a Stanford University classmate in 1995.

Yang's rejection of the 33-dollar-a-share offer for Yahoo earned him the ire of Icahn and many other shareholders and Yahoo has since been trading at around 10-12 dollars a share.

As part of a truce agreement, Icahn and two allies were given seats on the board of directors of Yahoo.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer last week ruled out making another takeover bid for Yahoo but said he remains open to a partnership on Internet search.

Yahoo has been losing ground on the Internet to companies such as Google and social networks like MySpace and Facebook and the economic slowdown has hit the firm particularly hard as advertisers cut back on spending.

Yahoo was trading at 11.50 dollars in New York at 1800 GMT on Friday, a a gain of 8.70 percent on the day.

- AFP /ls