NEW YORK, NY — Ahead of its annual shareholder meeting schedule for August 1st, Yahoo Inc. is fighting back in a war of words with billionaire financier Carl Icahn. Icahn, who owns about 5-percent of Yahoo’s stock, has submitted a slate of officers for the board of directors election to be accomplished at the meeting, and has stated his goal is to take control of the search-engine company with an eye to selling it to Microsoft.In a letter posted on Yahoo’s corporate website July 17th, Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang assured investors “significant risk” is inherent in Icahn’s plans. They also repeated the company’s position that it would consider selling to Microsoft only under certain conditions that would benefit shareholders.
Among the accusations Bostock and Yang leveled in the letter are that Icahn and Microsoft “continue to make misleading statements about their plans for Yahoo.”
“Your board of directors believes strongly that the Icahn-Microsoft agenda — as presented to us jointly last week — will destroy stockholder value at Yahoo, serving only their very narrow special interests, clearly not your interests,” the letter stated.
Bostock and Yang also reminded shareholders that Yahoo is “preparing to implement [a] recently signed commercial agreement with Google that will increase cash flow.”
According to the letter, “The [most recent] Icahn/Microsoft proposal [to purchase only Yahoo’s search-engine component] was more ‘smoke and mirrors’ than objective reality.”
Be that as it may, the letter also noted Yahoo remains open to negotiations with Microsoft if the company is willing to offer at least $33 per share.
