Skip Links

Network World

  • Social Web 
  • Email 
  • Close

Yahoo settles with Icahn on board members

By Mikael Ricknäs , IDG News Service , 07/21/2008

Yahoo has reached an agreement to end a proxy fight with investor Carl Icahn, who will take a seat on the company's board after the annual stockholders' meeting, Yahoo said Monday.

As part of the settlement agreement Icahn, who owns 4.98 percent of Yahoo common stock, has agreed to withdraw his nominees and support those of the board at the annual meeting on Aug. 1. Eight members from the current board of directors will be up for re-election, including CEO Jerry Yang.

The Yahoo board will be expanded to 11 members, including Icahn and two others from his list. With Icahn now to have a seat on the board, his list includes eight remaining nominees along with Jonathan Miller, currently a partner in Velocity Interactive Group and former Chairman and CEO of AOL, according to a statement from Yahoo.

Icahn had been trying to wrest control of the Yahoo board to force a sale of all or part of it to Microsoft. Yahoo has rebuffed Microsoft's offers and according to published reports Microsoft is now in talks with Time Warner to possibly buy its AOL business. After Yahoo investor Legg Mason said last week that it would support the current Yahoo board, it appeared likely that Icahn's efforts would not prevail. Legg Mason owns 4.4 percent of Yahoo shares.

The agreement between Yahoo and Icahn serves the best interest of stockholders, Company Chairman Roy Bostock said in a statement, and he now looks forward to working productively with Icahn and the other new members of the board.

For his part, Icahn said in the same statement issued by Yahoo that he is pleased with the settlement, but he still contends that selling all of the company or its search business also adds that he continues to believe that the sale of the whole company or the sale of its search business in the right transaction "must be given full consideration."

As part of the agreement, that issue, as well as any strategy for a "transaction," will be discussed by the full board, which also pleases Icahn, according to the statement.

Partner Content

Explore the Ultrium Edge

The powerful tape technology can address data security with tape encryption as well as long term data protection.

Find out more

Disk and Tape Square Off

Discover what disk and tape really cost -- and which solution provides lower total cost of ownership and optimizes energy use for your organization

Download the White Paper

Don't Fall For The Myths

The Clipper Group explores the truth behind the myths of tape, digging into the misconceptions in the disk vs. tape debate.

Download the White Paper

Will You Add Tape Too?

Over two thirds of disk-only users look to add tape back into storage infrastructure according to recent survey.

Download Survey Information

Comments (1)
Login
Forgot your account info?

Carl Icahn lands a seat on the Yahoo board and the story endsBy Microsoft Subnet on July 21, 2008, 2:53 pmYahoo will remain an independent company but Carl Icahn will be helping to lead it. The story of the failed sale of Yahoo to Microsoft is officially over, it seems....

Reply | Read entire comment

View all comments

Add comment
Anonymous comments subject to approval. Register here for member benefits.
Have a NetworkWorld account? Log in here. Register now for a free account.

Videos

rssRss Feed

Whitepapers

Retrospective Network Analysis

In this whitepaper learn how Retrospective Network Analysis (RNA) has proved a different type of...

SNMP Monitorin One Critical Component to Network Management

SNMP is a valuable tool to any network administrator who requires complete visibility into the...

Monitoring and Managing App Performance

This paper defines application analysis, discusses the different categories of tools on the market,...

Webcasts

Direct from Microsoft: Tips for Integrating Exchange 2007 and Double-Take Software

Double-Take (r) Software and Microsoft are teaming up on September 9, 2008 for a webinar focusing...

Transforming the Enterprise WAN Edge: Video from Cisco

Life on the edge of your WAN has changed dramatically. With the need to deliver advanced services,...

PoE Plus: Impact on the PoE Market

The standard for Power over Ethernet (PoE), IEEE Std. 802.3af(tm)-2003, advanced networking,...

Special Reports

Data Centers: At the Center of Action

Archiving, backup and data protection take on ever more critical roles in the enterprise. Data...

The New Network/System Management Challenges

Increasingly popular technologies such as virtualization, wireless networking and data center...

Virtualization Reality Check

Find out why analysts say approaching virtualization with an ounce of caution is wise. And also why...

Get instant email notification when white papers, webcasts, executive guides are added to our library. Stay informed and up-to-date with the latest on IT Technologies with Network World's Resource Alerts.