Battle ahead for Yahoo board
2008-05-15 11:44
San Francisco - Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has decided to press ahead with a proxy fight to oust Yahoo Inc's current board in favour of members who might be more amenable to negotiating a merger with Microsoft Corp, according to published reports on Wednesday.
Icahn, a veteran shareholder activist, has successfully acquired stakes in numerous other companies in order to influence their management. Reuters reported that Icahn has now lined up "at least 12 potential (Yahoo) board candidates and could announce the slate as early as Wednesday night."
The Wall Street Journal later reported in its online edition that Icahn intends to nominate candidates to replace Yahoo's entire 10-member board, including former Viacom Inc Chief Executive Frank Biondi.
A spokesperson for Icahn declined to comment.
Many Yahoo investors - including the largest and most influential - have expressed dismay with the way the company's current management and board handled Microsoft's unsolicited acquisition offer.
Microsoft pulled the bid nearly two weeks ago, after the two sides failed to agree on a price. Microsoft had initially bid $31 a share at the beginning of February.
Any Yahoo shareholder faces a Thursday deadline for nominating an alternate slate of directors, which could then conceivably press for the company to return to merger negotiations with Microsoft. Those nominees could be elected at the Yahoo's annual meeting slated for July 3.
Also on Wednesday, another activist investor, Third Point LLC, disclosed that it now holds one million shares of Yahoo and 6.85 million shares of Microsoft. That firm's intentions, however, were not immediately apparent.
Still, it remained unclear as of Wednesday whether Microsoft would even be willing to resume merger talks with Yahoo.
The company, which conceived of the Yahoo acquisition as a means to team up and better compete with dominant rival Google Inc, has publicly indicated that it intends to proceed with an independent strategy for developing internet services.
According to the Wall Street Journal report, Icahn has failed to receive any indication from Microsoft about whether or not it intends to resume talks with Yahoo.