Davey Winder
Wednesday, 09 July 2008 05:08
IT Industry -
Market
Page 3 of 4
Our company is now moving toward a precipice. It is
currently losing market share in its "Search" function; our current
Board has failed to bring in a talented and experienced CEO to replace
Jerry Yang and return Jerry to his role as Chief Yahoo!, and currently
it is witnessing a meaningful exodus of talent. It is no secret that
Google (which hired a great operator as CEO) continues to dramatically
outperform Yahoo!. According to publicly available information,
Google's income from operations grew 59% per year over the last two
years while Yahoo!'s shrank 21% per year. However, none of the above
has caused the Yahoo! board to hesitate in paying themselves $10,000
per week. IT IS TIME FOR A CHANGE.
If elected, I have little doubt that the new
board, subject to its fiduciary duties, will do what the current board
will not do, i.e.,
-- Immediately start negotiation with Microsoft to sell the whole
company or, in the alternative, sell "Search" with large guarantees.
-- Move expeditiously to replace Jerry Yang with a new CEO with operating
experience.
This was followed by Microsoft which issued the following statement, in support of the Icahn position, later the same day:
source
In the past week, we have had the opportunity to discuss with Carl
Icahn the prospects for a possible agreement between Microsoft and
Yahoo.
Despite working since January 31 of this year, as well as in the early
part of last year, we have never been able to reach an agreement in a
timely way on acceptable terms with the current management and board of
directors at Yahoo.
We have concluded that we cannot reach an agreement with them. We
confirm, however, that after the shareholder election, Microsoft would
be interested in discussing with a new board a major transaction with
Yahoo, such as either a transaction to purchase the "Search" function,
with large financial guarantees or, in the alternative, purchasing the
whole company.
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