Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is moving ahead with plans to run a dissident board slate at Yahoo in a bid to force the Internet company to sell itself to Microsoft. Icahn, who has amassed a 3.5 percent stake in Yahoo, has lined up at least 12 potential board candidates ahead of Thursday’s deadline for the July 3 annual meeting, which is shaping up to be a doozy. DealJournal maps out Icahn’s attack patterns, and Eric Jackson, who was instrumental in a successful campaign for a change of leadership at Yahoo last year, writes on Reuters.com that he is arguing again for an “against” vote for all directors.

General Electric is looking to sell its appliance unit in an auction that could bring in $5 billion to $8 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal, which says the company has hired Goldman Sachs to advise on a possible sale. While GE’s appliance unit, which makes refrigerators, stoves and other so-called “white goods,” is one of its most visible to consumers, the business made up just 4 percent of the company’s $173 billion in revenue last year. GE chief Jeffrey Immelt has worked to shed slower-growth businesses including the company’s plastics unit, where Immelt spent the early part of his career.

Comcast has agreed to acquire Web start-up Plaxo, which was first to seek to turn address books into social networks and laid the foundation for Friendster and Facebook. A source close to the deal said Comcast, the top U.S. cable TV company and No. 2 broadband Internet supplier, is paying from $145 million to $175 million, depending on whether the unit meets performance targets in the next few years. Plaxo joins Comcast online assets Comcast.net, video entertainment site Fancast, movie site Fandango and video publishing company thePlatform.

Search site Ask.com is expected to announce a deal today to buy Lexico, home to popular reference Web sites Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com, a move that will expand its audience by 11 percent. IAC/InterActiveCorp is focusing its Internet and advertising assets and is spinning off its other businesses later this year. With Lexico, Ask expects to expand its audience to more than 145 million unique monthly users. Based on March traffic data from comScore, that would make Ask.com the ninth-largest Web property globally.

Other deals of the day:

* Anglo-Swiss miner Xstrata bid $398 million for Australian-listed Indophil Resources NL in a move that would give it full control of a giant copper mine in the Philippines. Indophil rejected the A$426 million, or $1 a share, offer as “opportunistic”, saying it did not reflect the value of the company.

* Aluminum Corp of China, the world’s No.4 aluminium maker, said that it had taken over six units of its state-owned parent worth 4.17 billion yuan ($595.5 million).

* Malaysian industrial and financial group Boustead Holdings said it will take over its property subsidiary, Boustead Properties at 5.50 ringgit ($1.69) per share.

* G4S Plc announced divestment of manned security and monitoring activities in Germany to Securitas Deutschland Finanz Holding Gmbh, a subsidiary of Securitas AB for a cash consideration of 27 million pounds.

* British energy network National Grid is interested in a possible bid for the high-voltage grid put up for sale by German utility E.ON, Chief Executive Steve Holliday said.

* The largest investor of Polish jeweller W.Kruk is in talk with financial investors to block the hostile bid by clothing retailer Vistula & Wolczanka, he said. Vistula & Wolczanka offered 289 million zlotys ($132.2 million) for two-thirds of W.Kruk earlier this month.