On 1 August 2008 business news reported the billionaire investor, who owns a 5 percent stake in Yahoo, is content with his lot finally. After months of criticising the Yahoo management for its handling of its negotiations with Microsoft, and openly stating his ambition to launch a proxy battle to oust them, Carl Icahn has decided not to attend the company shareholder meeting, pacified by the Yahoo peace offering of three seats on its board.
Then on 4 August 2008 Carl Icahn, rebel shareholder and vocal billionaire, may have been placated, but Yahoo still faced dissent at its much anticipated AGM on 1 August. Angry investors turned up at the Yahoo board meeting voicing their anger at how the two takeover bids from Microsoft were handled.
Eric Jackson, a fund manager with Ironfire Capital in Tampa, Florida, and holder of 250 Yahoo shares stated that he felt Yahoo had overpaid in terms of executive compensation, overplayed their hand with Microsoft and overstayed their welcome on the board.
Another investor said he wanted to know how much time Yahoo directors spent doing their jobs to earn their pay. Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock argued that Yahoo had called the shots in the Microsoft negotiations that have been rumbling on for months. Jerry Yang, CEO and co-founder of Yahoo stepped up to face shareholders and told them that his company is confident of the future.
Two days later on the 6 August 2008, the details came through from the Yahoo AGM, and they reveal exactly how close the top management of the company came to losing their jobs. A vote in the confidence in CEO Jerry Yang saw 33.7 percent of votes withheld for Yang with 66.3 percent in favour of him remaining on the board.
The initial tally that Yahoo revealed said that 85 percent of shareholders had voted to keep Yang. But, despite the errors, Yang and other key board members still faced a drumming.
On the 15 August 2008 one dropped out but the two remaining businessmen nominated by Carl Icahn have now been named and brought into the Yahoo board. They are former Viacom and Universal Studios chief Frank Biondi and former Nextel Partners boss John Chapple.
Icahn was offered three seats on the Yahoo board in order to stop him launching a proxy vote to oust the present Yahoo board including Yahoo co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang.
