Mumbai: Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has extended his fight against Yahoo Inc's board, asking it offer to sell the company to Microsoft for $34.375 a share.

In a letter to Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock, ahead of an approaching annual shareholder meeting of the company, Icahn said he wants Yahoo to tell Microsoft it's willing to be sold for $49.5 billion, about $2 billion above Microsoft's last offer.

"Why don't you stop dancing around the subject and publicly offer to sell the company to Microsoft for $34.375 per share and promise to cooperate completely?" Icahn said in the letter.

Yahoo, however, rejected the idea of declaring an acceptable sales price for the company while Microsoft declined comment.

In his latest letter to Yahoo, Icahn said if Microsoft doesn't accept the offer "in a friendly and cooperative transaction," he would push the internet company to do a deal with Google Inc if he wins control of Yahoo's board.

"So why don't you stop dancing around the subject and publicly offer to sell the company to Microsoft for $34.375 per share and promise to cooperate completely?," Icahn wrote to Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock.
 
Microsoft, which made a $33-per-share offer for Yahoo Inc, abandoned the plans after Yahoo demanded $37 a share.

A $34.375 a share offer would value Yahoo at about $48 billion.

''Leaving aside Mr Icahn's inaccurate interpretation of our retention plan, we again note that he has no credible plan to operate Yahoo!," the internet major said in the statement.

"As we have stated numerous times publicly and privately, we are open to any transaction, including a sale to Microsoft if it is in the best interests of shareholders," the statement said.

Investment funds controlled by Icahn hold about 59 million shares and options, or 4.28 per cent of Yahoo.

Yahoo had also blamed Icahn for not suggesting any credible plans for operating the internet major and that the company is open to any transaction, including a sale to Microsoft.