Yahoo has called its annual shareholder meeting for August 1, 2008...and braces for a proxy battle mounted by billionaire investor Carl Icahn.
Yahoo has announced in a regulatory filing that it will hold its annual shareholder meeting on August 1, 2008, marking the day that Yahoo’s current management, led by co-founder Jerry Yang, will resolve a showdown with billionaire investor CArl Icahn over control of the company. Icahn has made no secret of his displeasure that Yahoo’s current management was unable to reach a buyout deal with Redmond software giant Microsoft, has has initiated a proxy battle to replace Yahoo’s management with his own slate of directors and, potentially, take Yahoo begging back to Microsoft for a buyout.
Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that ICahn would seek to remove Jerry Yang as Yahoo CEO.
Speculation about how Yahoo handled Microsoft’s unsolicited $45+ billion takeover offer has been fueled by the release of court documents Monday related to a shareholder suit over the deal. The suit argues that Yahoo took steps to deliberately sabotage any deal with Microsoft, including an expensive plan to retain employees in the event of a takeover—the plan could have cost Microsoft more than $2 billion extra if they were to have taken over. The records also indicate Microsoft made a takeover offer in January 2007, although pricing details are based on press reports rather than actual offer documents.
To stage a takeover of Yahoo, Icahn need to have at least five of his candidates elected to Yahoo’s board.
