May 20 (Bloomberg) -- T. Boone Pickens, chairman of BP Capital LLC, said he bought 10 million shares of Yahoo Inc. after billionaire investor Carl Icahn announced that he will seek to oust the Internet company's board.

``Carl Icahn is a smart guy,'' said Pickens in an interview broadcast on CBNC today. ``He does great things for shareholders and now I'm a shareholder. When I saw what he did, I jumped in behind him.''

Icahn disclosed last week that he owned 10 million shares of Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo, and options to purchase 49 million more. He said he would wage a proxy battle to replace Yahoo's directors if they failed to agree to a combination with Microsoft Corp., the world's biggest software maker.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft walked away from a $47.5 billion takeover bid for the company on May 3.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nancy Kercheval in Washington at nkercheval@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 20, 2008 08:41 EDT