A new move of Yahoo!’s board: a letter in response to Carl Icahn’s announcement regarding his intention to nominate a slate of ten directors to Yahoo!’s board of directors at the 2008 annual meeting of stockholders:
Dear Mr. Icahn:
We are in receipt of your letter with regard to your intention to seek control of Yahoo!’s board of directors.
Unfortunately, your letter reflects a significant misunderstanding of the facts about the Microsoft proposal and the diligence with which our board evaluated and responded to that proposal. A fair-minded review of the factual record leads to one conclusion: that Yahoo!’s ten-member board, comprised of nine independent directors along with Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang, remains the best and most qualified group to maximize value for all Yahoo! stockholders.
(See the full Press Release)
John Dvorak makes an overview of the Yahoo’s board:
- Jerry Yang, founder
- Roy Bostock, chairman of the board here and at Northwest Airlines, and director at Morgan Stanley
- Ron Burkle, finance guy and Bill Clinton pal ,expert in supermarkets and board member of Occidental Petroleum Corp
- Eric Hippeau
- Vyomesh Joshi, a VP at Hewlett-Packard Co. from the printing division
- Arthur Kern, the new-media guy
- Robert Kotick, chairman and chief executive of Activision Inc. OK
- Ed Kozel, background in technology as well as finance
- Maggie Wilderotter, connection to Microsoft as a former VP
- Gary Wilson, from Northwest Airlines,
and the Carl Icahn’s new group:
- Carl Icahn
- Lucian Bebchuk, corporate lawyer, expert in corporate governance
- Frank Biondi Jr., former Viacom Inc. executive sits on a lot of boards, including Seagate Technology’s
- John Chapple, little or no hook into Yahoo’s business
- Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks owner
- Adam Dell, VC and finance guy
- Keith Meister, Icahn’s personal economic hit man
- Edward Meyer, advertising
- Brian Posner
- Robert Shaye, a Hollywood mogul,
concluding that Carl Icahn will try to sell Yahoo! to Microsoft; If he will not succeed, he will bring Yahoo in disaster.
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