Carl Icahn and Yahoo have come to a settlement over control of Yahoo’s board. In return for three board seats, Icahn has agreed to withdraw his alternative slate of nominees and back down from a full-fledged proxy war. Icahn will be given a seat on the board, existing board member Robert Kotick (CEO of Activision) will step down, and the board will be expanded to 11 members from the current ten. The two resulting empty seats will be determined by vote, filled from Icahn’s alternate slate of directors and giving him three seats on the new board. Former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller will also be eligible to take one of the empty seats, and likely will.
This outcome is probably the best that Icahn could have hoped for. Icahn overplayed his hand by trying to negotiate directly with Microsoft before he had enough authority to do so (he owns five percent of Yahoo’s shares). The result was a three-way negotiation between Icahn, Microsoft, and Yahoo that resembled a game of Telephone, with mixed messages flying everywhere.
Microsoft ended up distancing itself from Icahn, and other large institutional shareholders like Legg Mason’s Bill Miller decided that ganging up with Icahn would be a bad idea. And Yahoo began soliciting votes for its current board members on its homepage.
It appears that realized he couldn’t win the proxy fight, and took the opportunity to grab a portion of the board. While other activists would have liked to see Icahn take four seats, three seats still gives him a strong position from which to agitate for change. So we haven’t heard the last from Icahn on the future of Yahoo.
(Photo by Sam Lustgarten)
The article is back up and running again!
It took some dark magic, but we got it back.
Icahn really caused a raucous. You wonder if such a display will some how tarnish his reputation and hurt relationships for future investment opportunities. Icahn should start his own internet company, build it to multi-billion dollar value, and then sell it to Microsoft.
Mike
http://www.readtheanswer.com/index.php?RTA=web2
Carl Icahn is playing like a rat and cat race. Online business gone up and people are trying to make money just by switching up with big players like microsoft, yahoo and google.
Lots have been heard about google taking over yahoo. or yahoo negotiating with microsoft. But outcome is always the same. There always a difference in the division of shares.
Hope Icahn gets 3 seats in the 11 members board.
Finally sanity remains on top!
icahn should put the board seats up on ebay — there’s a new short-term revenue stream for yahoo. anybody wanna bid?
I personally wish that microsoft takes on yahoo … i don’t like monopoly… in any market … when there is competition … the winner is always the consumer
I think the most unfortunate thing about Microsoft’s acquisition attempt is the paralyzing effect it has had on Yahoo! as a company. Icahn will probably just be another paralyzing force at Yahoo! — he’s just waiting for a chance to make a sale. As the months go by and no deal happens, though, I think things will finally settle down…I’m definitely looking forward to that!
Icahn is no spider, he’s just a fly in the ointment and apparently doesn’t have the power to completely replace Yahoo’s board, such as was the story just a couple short months ago. Yahoo is doing fine and releasing new features.
I’m invested in none of these companies.
what an interesting turn of events — perhaps a deal will be more likely now.
where can i buy iphone? why are there no iphone posts ?
No more iPhone posts? We should be so lucky.
this guy should be on an ad campaign for Depends diapers.
It should read:
“and the board will be expanded to 11 members from the current nine”
Icahn will be given a seat on the board, existing board member Robert Kotick (CEO of Activision) will step down, and the board will be expanded to 11 members from the current ten.
The current board is just 9 member strong.
I’ve found a new love for Yahoo! (for obvious reasons that I won’t spam on here).
If MS buys Yahoo, or even the search division of Yahoo, little guys like me will more than likely feel the pain. Granted, we could always do other things but Yahoo seems to really offer better open API’s here recently.
I’d like to see Yahoo compete with S3 as well…something maybe powered by Hadoop.
icahn is the spawn of satan. my disappointment is now in Y! for actually coming to a settlement with this snake.
So they decide put him on their board of directors mere days after publicly maligning him. Way to build credibility, Yahoo.
boneless fight, typical,
we can discuss details but we forget what is it.
it is just a f*up cath to obtain the fruit of the work of yahoo
Does anyone have a statement from Bobby Kotick? I’d like to see what he says about his departure from the board / the state of Yahoo etc…
Zach
Never negotiate with a terrorist.
Icahn is an idiot and a bully. I think it is clear from his own statements that he knows nothing about tech companies, specifically microsoft and yahoo.
I’m sorry to see Yahoo give in to him.
Is there a way to vote AGAINST the Icahn stooges?
congrats to Jerry! Yahoo! Rocks!
thanks you..
hi, andar here, i just read your post. i like very much. agree to you, sir.
Автор,
у тебя фид не работает.
Или это мой ридер таращит?