Search Results for: \"carl icahn\"

Here’s an interesting twist in the Yahoo/Microsoft/Icahn love triangle–Carl Icahn and Yahoo have just kissed and made-up.

Under a newly announced settlement, Carl Icahn and two of his cohorts will be elected to Yahoo’s board of directors.

Following the 2008 annual meeting, the Yahoo! Board will be expanded to 11 members. Carl Icahn will be appointed to the Board and the remaining two seats will be filled by the Board upon the recommendation of the Board’s Nominating and Governance Committee from a list of nine candidates recommended by Mr. Icahn, which includes the eight remaining members of the Icahn slate of nominees and Jonathan Miller, currently a partner in Velocity Interactive Group and former Chairman and CEO of AOL.

UPDATE: The votes are in and there are no surprises from the annual meeting.

On the surface, it appears newly appointed Yahoo board member Carl Icahn, is staying away from the company’s annual shareholder meeting for the good of the company.

On his blog, Icahn states:

I will not be attending. The proxy fight is over and it will not do shareholders or Yahoo! any good to have the annual meeting turn into a media event for no purpose.

It’s those words that have the rest of the media praising Icahn for knowing the difference between “activist shareholder” and troublemaker. But this Pilgrim’s not convinced Icahn’s motives are all selfless.

The AP is reporting that the Yahoo shareholder meeting will likely turn ugly, as unhappy shareholders voice their concern over not selling to Microsoft.

The single biggest PITA for Yahoo has decided to leave his board position.

If you’re not aware of just how disruptive the self-labeled "activist investor" Carl Icahn has been, a quick review of our archives should bring you up to speed.

It appears that Carl Icahn isn’t happy unless he’s getting his way, and for all intents and purposes, he’s had his way with Yahoo. After criticizing the company for not selling to Microsoft, forcing his way onto the board of directors, then dumping a bunch of shares, our prediction that he was about to bail, has come true.

In a parting statement, Icahn appears to offer legitimate praise for Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz:

"Carol is doing a great job and I believe the Microsoft transaction will provide great long term benefits, the potential of which many still do not understand."

Remember all the drama between Carl Icahn and Yahoo last year? As a major shareholder, he lobbied for Yahoo to take Microsoft’s buyout offer (any offer!). And then there were some I’ll-replace-your-whole-board-of-directors threats, and some nuh uhs. And some I’ll-get-you-yet,-Yang!s and some “what-ever”s and some pbbbts and “You’re nuts”s. . . . Yeah, for a while there it was a little ugly. Eventually, Yahoo tried to placate Icahn with a luxurious spot on their board for him and two of his closest friends!

But it looks like even that wasn’t enough to keep Icahn happy for long. AllThingsD reports today that Carl Icahn has recently sold off a sixth of his shares in Yahoo at a significant loss—$125M. Although he retains his and his cronies’ seats on the board, and 63M shares (about 4.5% of the company), taking that kind of loss doesn’t look so good for Yahoo.