icahn

Yahoo gives prime Net real estate to Icahn-bashing site

Updated 9:16 a.m. PDT with Chief Executive Jerry Yang's comment about the site.

Yahoo is using its considerable Internet clout to promote its "proxy facts" Web site devoted to countering investor Carl Icahn's attempt to replace the company's board of directors with his own picks.

The company's main page includes a large link to the proxy fight site just below the main advertisement on the right side of the page, showing a purple panel that reads, "We have a couple of exclamation points to make." Given the heavy traffic to … Read more

Icahn's latest lament: Et tu, Legg Mason?

This wasn't the sort of reaction Carl Icahn was expecting from his former buddies on Wall Street.

Legg Mason Capital Management, which controls about 4.4 percent of outstanding Yahoo stock, plans to back management at the company's shareholders meeting next month. Could it be that Legg Mason thinks he's as clueless as Yahoo claims he is when it comes to managing a complex technology company?

Bill Miller, chairman and chief investment officer of Legg Mason, said Friday in a statement that Legg Mason would prefer the feuding sides reach a settlement and "end this disruptive … Read more

Legg Mason: We're backing Yahoo

Legg Mason Capital Management said Friday it will back Yahoo's existing management at the company's shareholder's meeting next month.

The investment firm controls about 60.7 million shares of Yahoo, which represents about 4.4 percent of outstanding Yahoo stock.

Investor Carl Icahn has proposed an alternative slate of board members, as part of a bid to get Yahoo to agree to some sort of takeover or deal with Microsoft.

"We believe the current Board acted with care and diligence when evaluating Microsoft's offers. We believe the Board is independent and focused on value creation … Read more

New Yahoo filing. A lot like the old Yahoo filing

Another day, another filing. By now, you'd think Yahoo had said all that it could say about its increasingly rancorous disagreement with Carl Icahn over the future of the company.

Not by a long shot.

Earlier today, the company issued an in-your-face challenge to Carl Icahn in a letter to shareholders, which also singled out Microsoft for poor judgment. But that didn't exhaust Yahoo's surprising gift for gab.

In the run-up to its highly-anticipated shareholders meeting on August 1, Yahoo filed a document with the Securities & Exchange Commission after the close of trading.

The document rehashes … Read more

Yahoo letter to shareholders

As the fight over Yahoo heats up in preparation for the August 1 shareholder meeting, the embattled company sent a letter to shareholders on Thursday, urging them to vote against a proposal from investor Carl Icahn.

Below is the full text of the letter.

Dear Fellow Stockholder:

The recently-formed Carl Icahn-Microsoft alliance continues 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.

Your Board continues to work to … Read more

Yahoo letter: Icahn is only looking out for himself

In a new letter to shareholders, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and Chairman Roy Bostock claim that the latest proposal from Microsoft and investor Carl Icahn "will destroy stockholder value at Yahoo."

The letter, released Thursday, complains that Icahn only invested in Yahoo two months ago, and is just looking for a deal to "recover his investment and get back his money quickly, even a deal that does not provide full and fair value to you."

The letter is part of the months of sniping among the companies, investors, and other interested parties, all leading up to … Read more

Yahoo and Microsoft step up Time Warner AOL discussions

Updated at 1:36 p.m. PDT with a report on AOL executives meeting with Microsoft.

Yahoo and Microsoft have both accelerated their respective deal-making talks with Time Warner's AOL, as a proxy fight looms less than three weeks away between Yahoo and investor activist Carl Icahn, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

"The ongoing talks between all the companies have recently picked up," said the source.

That may come as no surprise, given that Yahoo over the weekend rejected a sweetened Microsoft offer to buy just its search assets and the board of directors … Read more

Selling the suckers on Google-Yahoo

While the food fight between Yahoo and Carl Icahn escalates--and while I'm at it, don't forget Microsoft--both the House and Senate Judiciary committees are getting ready to hold hearings on the proposed Yahoo-Google tie-up. In advance of this primo photo op for the hired help, I had a chance to review the prepared testimony of David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer. Give the guy credit for putting together a crisp presentation. Among the highlights:

If Uncle Sam green-lights this deal, Google won't wind up taking nearly total control of the search market.

States reviewing Yahoo-Google search ad deal

Updated July 15 at 7:05 a.m. PT, with comment from additional sources

A collection of state attorneys general are reviewing the Yahoo-Google search-advertising partnership for possible antitrust violations, several states confirmed.

While these states are in communication with one another and engaged in a collective review of the proposed deal, none have emerged as the lead state or states on the matter, said Sandi Copes, a spokeswoman for the attorney general for the state of Florida.

Attorneys general from Florida, Arkansas, and Connecticut are all taking a look at the proposed deal, but the review process is in … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 765: Thank goodness for robot crabs

I'm so sick of saying the name of that darn phone, but the fact of the matter is, people want to hear about it. So we do one more day about the weekend issues and thank goodness for Microsoft and Yahoo giving us something else to talk about. And robot crabs. Thank goodness for robot crabs. Listen now: Download today's podcast Episode 765

Yahoo rejects joint-bid for search business by Icahn and Microsoft http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9989870-93.html

Microsoft' Latest Offer Detailed; Major Shareholder Legg Mason (Still) Unimpressed http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-microsoft-latest-offer-detailed-legg-mason-unimpressed/ http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/13/1217220… Read more