Champagne wishes and caviar dreams are now but a memory for billionaire shareholder-activist Carl Icahn, who lost about $125 million today by selling off 16 percent of his ever-losing stake in Yahoo.

The sale of 12.7 million shares at just under $15 a piece is a far cry from the hopes that the famously prickly Icahn had when he started his quest to bring about change and riches for himself by investing in stock of the turmoil-plagued Internet giant in 2008.

As it turned out, he came to Silicon Valley, he saw, he did not conquer.

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BoomTown is at the lovely Santa Clara Marriott in Silicon Valley at the 2009 Yahoo annual meeting, liveblogging the event, which should be spectacularly dull.

Here is a rundown of what went on.

10:05 am: The meeting kicks off with a little video presentation with various and sundry television talking heads saying “Yahoo” in quick succession.

Actually, this was the year during which all of those hype-magnets repeated “Twitter” so many times that it has began to make my ears bleed.

But I like the spirit of trying to make Yahoo seem relevant and innovative again.

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Let’s be honest–even with the sassy stylings of CEO Carol Bartz, who will be appearing at her first Yahoo annual meeting this morning–there are few of these affairs that are even remotely exciting.

Last year’s Yahoo meeting did have a frisson of possibility, since billionaire investor Carl Icahn and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer were fixing to put the double squeeze on the board and, especially, its then-CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang. Also, major Yahoo shareholders threatened a revolt.

But, none of that panned out. Thus, this year is likely to be a snoozer in comparison.

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In exactly one week at 10 am PDT, Yahoo will hold its annual meeting in Silicon Valley, the first time when new CEO Carol Bartz will greet its shareholders in person.

She should prep carefully, as the event has been quite a drama over the last two years.

Here’s a rundown of what is likely to be on the minds of investors, including the status of the isn’t-it-rich-aren’t-they-a-pair relationship between Yahoo and Microsoft.

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About 10 days ago, Google CEO Eric Schmidt opined in a press conference about the growing financial crisis: “My guess is that the drama is in New York and not here.”

Bad guess, as it turned out. Really bad guess, actually.

Yesterday, Google–one of many tech companies hammered after the House rejected the bailout plan–got slammed badly, along with Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple and many others.

Today, most of those stocks made back a lot of what they gave up.

But the experience should have given Silicon Valley a bracing wake-up call that it is in no way immune to the situation and that its businesses will likely suffer along with media and all sorts of other consumer companies if the credit crunch is not assuaged relatively soon.

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Once burnt, twice shy?

I suppose that’s the reason Microsoft is not loaded for bear and headed back down to Sunnyvale to make another play for Yahoo right now.

Not even after Jerry Yang orchestrated activist Carl Icahn’s defenestration by inviting him on the board at Yahoo, where he will be 100 percent silenced.

Not even after the stranger-than-fiction shareholder miscount (oops–we thought no meant yes!).

Not even after Yahoo stock’s consistent flirting-with-the-teens price.

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Dancing and making a video about dancing is obviously something that elevates Yahoo, which is no small thing in this tough period for the iconic Internet company.

In this video, Blog Editor Nicki Dugan takes the well-known dancing-fool Internet celeb Matt Harding of the Where the Hell Is Matt? Web site and places him all over Yahoo for 33 dancing sessions.

The video was recently shown at the company’s all-hands meeting, and it is simply delightful to see Yahoos looking happy simply by tripping the light fantastic.

I think activist shareholder Carl Icahn should make Harding one of his picks for the Yahoo board.

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Yesterday–in a patented playbook move–some top Microsoft execs didn’t miss a chance to slap around Yahoo over its shareholder vote debacle, letting it be known to industry insiders (on the very loud QT, of course) that the Internet company knew full well that its biggest investor, Capital Research & Management, was going to vote a large number of shares against it.

In essence, Microsofties are arguing that knowledge of a major investor’s dissatisfaction should have prompted Yahoo to question its unusually positive voting results at its annual meeting on Friday and ask the outside voting tabulator to recheck its numbers before officially releasing them.

While BoomTown is careful to consider the sources here–the collapse of Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo has left quite a bit of acrimony between the pair–they actually might have a point.

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The vote is now in and it’s not so pretty for Yahoo, as it turns out.

Broadridge Financial Solutions’ corrected tabulation of the vote at the Yahoo annual meeting on Aug. 1, without the “truncation errors,” came out and shareholders are actually mighty irked at Yahoo leadership.

Most glaringly, it shows Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang’s disapproval more than double what was previously reported, rising from 14.6 percent votes withheld to 33.7 percent. Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock increased from 20.5 percent withheld votes to 39.5 percent.

Yang, who has been under fire for his management of Yahoo, is likely to now endure yet another round of questioning about whether he should stay in his job in the wake of this clearly massive show of disapproval by investors.

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Here’s the full statement from the outside firm that tabulated Yahoo’s recent shareholder vote.

Bottom line: An underreporting of shares withheld for certain directors, which the Lake Success, N.Y., firm is calling a “truncation error.”

That sounds painful.

And it is likely Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang will feel much of that pain, as sources said the shares are largely those that were withheld from him by disgruntled shareholders.

The mistake will not change the vote’s overall outcome, but it will surely make Yang’s no-vote tally worse.

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All Yahoo needs now is for former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris to show up and start recounting votes.

It could happen, given all the crazy characters who have been drawn to the much-beleaguered Internet company like a magnet, in 2008.

It’s almost as if there is a voodoo curse on Yahoo and, so, you didn’t think the digital gods would let it have more than one weekend of good news, did you?

No, they will not, it seems.

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There is a mini-tempest brewing over how shares were tallied in the Yahoo annual meeting last Friday, specifically around whether a group of votes withheld by one of Yahoo’s major shareholders was not counted, counted incorrectly or even voted incorrectly by the investor.

According to sources close to the thinking at Capital Research & Management, the proxy committees for its two large funds that hold a significant stake in Yahoo recommended last week that they withhold votes specifically from CEO Jerry Yang and from various board members, such as Chairman Roy Bostock, to register disappointment with their performance.

Thus, sources said, the investment fund has approached outside vote tabulator Broadridge Financial Solutions, a Lake Success, N.Y.-based financial services company that does securities clearing and processing, about whether those votes were correctly counted.

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After its annual meeting today, as Yahoo board members had lunch together, Yahoo released the unsurprising results of its shareholder vote and it seems we will still have Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang to kick around some more.

Yang garnered 85.4 percent of the shares to stay on as a director of the Internet company, with 18.2 percent withheld.

While having almost 20 percent of your investors think you are not worthy is not good, it is also not nearly as bad as it could have been.

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OK, now we’re cooking with gas at Yahoo’s annual meeting in San Jose, as various shareholders–mostly small ones–come to the microphones and give Yahoo a piece of their mind.

First up, longtime Yahoo activist shareholder Eric Jackson asked Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock to step down, noted that Yahoo had overplayed its hand on the Microsoft bid, wondered about Yahoo President Sue Decker’s time problems (too many outside boards) and questioned the worth of Yahoo’s deal to sell an asset in Japan.

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Could the new and improved Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang actually manage to beat back the proxy fight being waged against him by activist investor Carl Icahn?

It increasingly looks that way, with only 12 days to go until Yahoo’s annual meeting on August 1.

But exactly which Yang will be running Yahoo, if he does win, is probably the most important question shareholders need to ask.

Would that be the seemingly energetic Yang of the past two weeks, invigorated by the battle with Icahn and his new best friend and Yahoo foe, Microsoft?

Or will it be the other Yang?

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