Just when you thought it was all over; investor Carl Icahn (a major shareholder in Yahoo!) has announced his plans to oust the entire board of directors and replace them with a new board who would be friendlier to a Microsoft takeover.
BBC NEWS | Technology | Yahoo rebuffs plan to oust board
Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock has written to Mr Icahn saying it was not in shareholders’ interest to allow him and his “handpicked nominees” to take over. Mr Bostock also criticised efforts to use the board fight to as a way to “force a sale of Yahoo to a formerly interested buyer”.
“May I remind you that there is currently no acquisition offer on the table from that company (Microsoft) or any other party,” he wrote. “That said, we have been crystal clear in our stance that we have been and remain willing to consider any proposal from any party including Microsoft if it offers our stockholders full and certain value.”
Microsoft has already said that, contrary to rumours of it possibly making another move later in the year, talks with Yahoo are over.
To help his bid to remove the board, Mr Icahn has reportedly bought around 59 million Yahoo shares - a 4.4% stake in the company. He has declared a desire to buy up to $2.5bn worth of shares - a 7% stake.
By comparison Yahoo boss Jerry Yang and fellow co-founder David Filo hold 10% stakes in the company.
May 16th, 2008 | Uncategorized | No comments