San Francisco  - The board of Yahoo has met for the first time since activist investor Carl Icahn was granted a seat at the table, authorizing fresh negotiations with Time Warner for the purchase of its AOL unit.

Icahn won board seats for himself and two allies after agitating for a boardroom revolt over Yahoo's rejection of a 47.5-billion- dollar takeover by Microsoft.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the board decision sanctioned secret negotiations that have been taking place between Yahoo and Time Warner. Yahoo has valued AOL at between 5 billion dollars and 8 billion dollars, while Time Warner is asking for 10 billion dollars.

The move came after Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner's chief executive, said last week that he hoped to reach a decision on AOL's future "fairly soon."

Analysts question whether a merger between Yahoo and AOL would greatly help either company as they try to compete with Google for online advertising revenue. Icahn has also questioned the move, saying last week that Yahoo's future still depended on reaching an accommodation with Microsoft. He told financial news channel CNBC that Yahoo would "have to do something with Microsoft or Google is going to kill them."

Microsoft however insists that it is no longer interested in buying Yahoo and announced this week a 40-billion-dollar share buyback program. (dpa)