Internet & Media

As Juniper CEO, Kevin Johnson to get $5 million signing bonus

The jump to Juniper Networks as CEO seems almost a no-brainer for Microsoft executive Kevin Johnson.

Johnson will not only be top dog at the networking company when he arrives September 8, but he's landing a $5 million signing bonus that'll be doled out over three years and an annual base salary of $800,000, according to Juniper's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

Johnson, who's leaving his post as Microsoft's online and Windows chief, will also land two stock option grants that total 1.6 million shares vesting over four years, … Read more

T. Boone Pickens dumps Yahoo stake

Yahoo dipped below $20 a share Tuesday morning, following a report in the San Francisco Chronicle that T. Boone Pickens dumped his entire stake of 10 million shares.

Shares of the Internet pioneer fell as low as $19.71 in morning trading, coming within a breath of the $19.18 that the stock closed at on the day before Microsoft announced its unsolicited buyout bid of $31 a share. Microsoft later bumped it up to $33 a share, which was rejected.

Pickens jumped into the stock in May, following an announcement by investor activist Carl Icahn that he would wage … Read more

Flickr co-founder pines for Microhoo

Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield, who has just left Yahoo, has some less-than-adulatory remarks about his former masters.

Speaking to CNET sister publication ZDnet during an Australian visit, Butterfield said he would have preferred it if Microsoft's attempt to acquire Yahoo had gone ahead.

"It was not so great," Butterfield said of the Microsoft acquisition saga. "Once the ball was rolling I would have rather seen the acquisition happen. I think a lot of damage was done to Yahoo. Not only from a company perspective, but from a leadership and (morale) perspective."

Butterfield left Yahoo July 12, … Read more

Proxy firm advice: Curtail Yahoo executive pay

The third of the big three proxy advisory services has issued its recommendation on how investors should vote during Yahoo's upcoming election. The advice: send a message about Yahoo's overpaid top brass.

With investor Carl Icahn and Yahoo coming to terms, there no longer is an opposing slate running against Yahoo's board of directors. But there's still going to be a vote, and Proxy Governance thinks it's a good time to take a stand.

"The average three-year compensation paid to the named executives is 480 percent above the median paid to executives at peer … Read more

RiskMetrics recommends re-election of current Yahoo board

Updated at 2:16 p.m. PDT with comments from RiskMetrics' Patrick McGurn and Yahoo shareholder activist Eric Jackson.

Yahoo's current board of directors received an endorsement Thursday, when influential advisory service RiskMetrics Group recommended to its institutional investor clients to vote for all of Yahoo's directors at the upcoming annual shareholders meeting.

That recommendation runs counter to one issued the day before by Glass Lewis & Co., another institutional investor advisory service that makes recommendations to pension funds, mutual funds and asset management companies on how to vote on issues contained within companies' proxies. Glass Lewis, as … Read more

Yahoo president 'looking forward' to meeting Icahn

Yahoo President Sue Decker has taken the high road. In a CNBC interview that aired Wednesday, she said she looks forward to meeting investor activist Carl Icahn when he joins the company's board and would "love to get his advice."

Icahn, who reached a settlement with Yahoo earlier in the week, agreed to halt his proxy fight in exchange for being appointed to the board after the company's August 1 shareholders meeting. Yahoo also agreed to expand its board to 11 members and select two directors from a list that Icahn provided.

In the past two … Read more

Glass Lewis advises against re-electing 3 Yahoo directors

An advisory service to institutional investors issued a recommendation Wednesday that its clients vote against the re-election of three Yahoo directors.

Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and directors Ron Burkle and Arthur Kern, all of whom sit on the compensation committee, received a thumbs down from influential institutional investor Glass Lewis & Co.

Glass Lewis, as well as RiskMetrics and Proxy Governance, issue recommendations to their clients on how to vote on proxy matters. These clients include mutual funds, pension funds, and asset management companies, which often hold large blocks of stock in various companies.

Glass Lewis is advising its clients … Read more

Yahoo declares the glass to be half full

Yahoo may have had some bumps in its second quarter, but it's not backing down from forecast for the rest of the year.

The Internet pioneer edged below analyst expectations for its second quarter for both revenue and earnings per share. Specifically, revenue excluding commissions increased 8 percent to $1.346 billion, shy of the $1.37 billion analysts had expected, and net income was 10 cents per share excluding various items, compared with 11 cents expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Nothing major went wrong, but the company's performance ended up on the low end of … Read more

Icahn recounts thought process behind settlement

While some folks were enjoying the summer sun and taking a vacation, investor activist Carl Icahn showed that the life of a shareholder activist can be 24-7.

In his blog post Tuesday, Icahn recounts how he spent last weekend hammering out a settlement agreement with Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and CEO Jerry Yang, ending a contentious proxy battle between the parties.

Here's what Icahn had to say:

Proxy fights are very expensive and time-consuming. Unlike political elections, where change is often seen, it is unfortunately extremely difficult to take control of a company. By the end of last week, … Read more