Mr. Icahn sure knows how to start the business week with a bang. Just when Jerry Yang was busy negotiating with Time Warner for a possible merger with AOL, here comes a seemingly irate Icahn writing to the Yahoo Shareholders, urging/demanding a change of Yahoo Board and the immediate replacement of Mr. Yang.
In his letter, Mr. Icahn, reiterated the current Yahoo’s Board failure to grab the initial $31 Microsoft buyout offer. According to Mr. Icahn:
Much has been said about how badly the Yahoo! board has “botched up” negotiations with Microsoft over the past months. There is no need to keep pointing out the mistakes I believe Yahoo! made by not immediately taking a $33 offer made by Microsoft. But one thing is clear — Jerry Yang and the current board of Yahoo! will not be able to “botch up” a negotiation with Microsoft again, simply because they will not have the opportunity.
As such, Mr. Icahn promised the Yahoo shareholders that a complete proxy solicitation statement will be mailed to them just in time for their annual meeting on August 1. The proxy solicitation letter would contain names of Icahn’s chosen Board members that would replace the current Yahoo Board. A new Yahoo Board which according to Mr. Icahn would:
Immediately start negotiation with Microsoft to sell the whole company or, in the alternative, sell “Search” with large guarantees.
Mr. Icahn’s letter ended rather harshly by urging the shareholders to
Move expeditiously to replace Jerry Yang with a new CEO with operating experience.
What a way to start the week indeed. It’s a good thing that Microsoft didn’t comment too much about the letter in their response to the Icahn letter. Let’s see we still got a full week ahead of us. More developments will surely happen in the coming days.
