Controversial billionaire investor Carl Icahn has stepped down from Yahoo’s board of directors, effective immediately, saying the company no longer needs an activist investor on its board, and expressing confidence in recently-installed Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and lauding the company’s new long-term Internet search pact with Microsoft.
Tag Archive: Carl Icahn
Investor Carl Icahn Backs Microsoft-Yahoo Deal
Last year, when that $47 billion deal between Microsoft and Yahoo came to nothing, it was Carl Icahn, the investor whose company controls around 5% of Yahoo’s stock, who tried to forge a new deal. That never happened.
Now he’s back the new deal which will see Microsoft buy Yahoo’s search advertising for a reported $3 billion upfront, with much more to come. All Things Digital has called the new agreement “imminent” – but we’re all waiting for the signatures on the dotted line.
Icahn wouldn’t comment on how negotiation were progressing, but he did tell Reuters he was a "strong advocate of getting a search deal done with Microsoft."
Icahn Urges Yahoo-Microsoft Search Deal
Carl Icahn won his seat on the board by staging a rebellion against Yahoo’s decision not to entertain Microsoft’s takeover bid earlier this year. Now that the company’s ad deal with Google has fallen apart, he’s taken up a somewhat familiar refrain, suggesting that Yahoo sell Microsoft its search business.
On CNBC on Monday night he said:
"I have said publicly and will continue to say it… I believe, as a large shareholder… that eventually Yahoo should, if it’s available, make a deal with Microsoft to sell the search business."
Yahoo Approves Talks with AOL
Earlier this year, Microsoft made a mammoth unsolicited offer to take over Yahoo…which Yahoo famously bobbed and weaved around and, months later, turned down flat. The refusal irritated a group of Yahoo shareholders—including bilionaire Carl Icahn—who felt Microsoft’s offer represented the best hope for a big payday on their Yahoo stock. Icahn got so upset that he threatened to run his own candidates for Yahoo’s board, take over the company, and spread it prostrate on Microsoft’s doorstep, hoping for a renewed offer. However, Yahoo executives managed to hold on to their jobs, placating Icahn and apparent minority of backers with three seats on Yahoo’s board of directors.
Yahoo Settles With Icahn
Yahoo has announced an agreement with billionaire investor Carl Icahn that should put off a proxy battle battle at the company’s shareholder meeting August 1. Under the deal, Yahoo will expand its board of directors from nine to eleven members; eight of those members will be current board members standing for re-election—including CEO Jerry Yang—while the other three seats will be filled by Carl Icahn himself and two of the nine board candidates put forward by Icahn’s group of investors.
Yahoo Gets Investor Support
By now, of course, it’s not exactly news that billionaire investor Carl Icahn wants to oust the Yahoo board at the general meeting next month. Since making his pronouncement, Icahn has also reportedly joined with Microsoft in a bid for Yahoo, which the company rejected out of hand.
However, the Yahoo board has received some good news. Capital management company Legg Mason, which owns over 60 million shares of Yahoo stock – equivalent to 4.4% of the company, has come out in favour of the current board.
Legg Mason chairman and chief investment officer Bill Miller said:
Yahoo Slams Icahn/Microsoft Plan
The drama between Microsoft and Yahoo has been taking place—in a very public way—for almost half a year now, and today Yahoo rachetted up the tension even further. In an open letter to shareholders, the company urged investors to back Yahoo’s current board of directors and reject a takeover attempt from dissatisfied billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who wants to appoint his own board and lay Yahoo for sale on Microsoft’s doorstep. And Yahoo’s letter walks right up to the line, insinuating Icahn is all but lying to get Yahoo investors to back his plans.
Yahoo Rejects Microsoft/Icahn Offer
In no uncertain terms, Yahoo has turned down a joint bid from Microsoft and billionaire investor Carl Icahn to take over the company. Under the terms, Microsoft would have acquired the search engine business and Icahn would have got the rest of Yahoo.
Yahoo claims that it was given just 24 hours to consider the offer and there was no time for negotiation, the BBC reports.
In a statement, Roy Bostock, Yahoo’s chairman, said:
"It is ludicrous to think that our board would accept such a proposal. This odd and opportunistic alliance of Microsoft and Carl Icahn has anything but the interests of Yahoo!’s stockholders in mind."
Icahn Says Ballmer Still Wants Yahoo
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is busily leading a shareholder revolt against Jerry Yang and Yahoo’s current management, irritated that the company turned down a $45 billion-plus payday to sell the company to Microsoft. Icahn’s plan to rectify the situation includes replacing Yahoo’s board of directors with his own slate at the company’s shareholder meeting in August, then taking Yahoo back to Microsoft and trying to make a deal.
Microsoft Seeks Allies for Yahoo Breakup?
The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets are reporting (subscription required) That Microsoft has approached media companies Time Warner and News Corp. about going in together on a deal to buy out struggling Internet company Yahoo—and then divide the spoils amongst themselves in a series of moves that would effectively dismantle Yahoo. The Wall Street Journal describes the talks as “preliminary” and unlikely to result in any immediate deal; other sources confirm portions of the story but hesitated to even describe the talks as “formal.”
