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Carl Icahn vs Jerry Yang at Yahoo shareholders meeting- a whimper!

By Amarendra Bhushan for CEOWORLD Magazine Updated:August 4, 2008

At last CEO Jerry Yang (85 percent of votes) and chairman Roy Bostock (80 percent of the votes) kept their jobs, Sue Decker hung on to the president’s desk. Yahoo also plans to name two more new directors from the Icahn group by August 15, as they expand the board to 11 members. Yang spoke at the meeting: “We are still in the middle of a massive transformation. The Internet is still the only industry, really, that’s growing in advertising revenue.”

According to CNET Yahoo board chairman Roy Bostock said, “At no point did the board or management in any way, despite rumors and speculation, ever resist Microsoft’s proposal . . . There was never any doubt…that the board was open to a deal with Microsoft and for search only if it made sense, but ultimately, there was never a compelling offer put on the table.”

That characterization and others caused Microsoft to make the following statement: “Yahoo! is attempting to rewrite history yet again with statements that are not supported by the facts.”

Yang received 85% of the vote in his favour as shareholders backed his stance over Microsoft and plans for development of the company.The lack of protest is perhaps not a surprise after billionaire investor Carl Icahn reached a peace deal with Yahoo! and did not attend the AGM. Icahn’s deal with Yahoo! saw the board expanded to eleven.

One of Icahn’s board candidates, former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller, ran into trouble when AOL parent Time Warner objected saying a non-compete clause remained in place until March 2009.Criticism of Yahoo! board did come in other quarters over on the firm’s falling stock price in the period following the failure of talks with Microsoft. On Friday Yahoo!’s shares stood at $19.80, close to the $19.18 before the Microsoft bid and a long way from the software giant’s $33 per share offer.

“The company needs to make some fundamental changes if it’s going to improve its performance and stock price. Yahoo is too bloated right now; they need to reduce head count, focus on core businesses and divest some of their holdings that aren’t making any money,” the candid Jackson told me after the meeting.

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