microhoo

Updated August 9 at 10:21 a.m. PDT, with more perspective on the agreement.

Yahoo on Friday released a copy of its controversial search advertising partnership agreement with Google, marking the first time details of the deal have been made publicly available.

But before laying your hands on a copy of the document, be forewarned that it is heavily redacted.

For example, a number of entire sections and their headings that explain how the deal will work are completely redacted, such as sections 2.1.4, 2.1.7, 2.3, 2.12, 2.13, 2.14, and 2.… Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--As you might expect, search engine marketers aren't crazy about how the Google-Yahoo-Microsoft power struggle has played out.

It's not that they disapprove of Yahoo remaining independent of Microsoft. It's just that Google's search market share, at nearly 70 percent in June, has only grown stronger during its rivals' kerfuffle. Online marketers here Wednesday at the RBC Capital conference said Google's dominance limits their options to deliver on search ad campaigns.

"We always have a need for multiple sources of quality traffic and we don't see that need going away as Google'… Read more

Now the fireworks and fractiousness can officially move inside Yahoo: activist investor Carl Icahn is part of the Internet company's board.

Icahn had tried to take over the entire board in July, but settled for a seat of his own and for two of his allies. In a regulatory filing Wednesday, Yahoo said Icahn is officially on the board, replacing Robert Kotick as planned.

One of Icahn's first roles on the board will be to help pick the two allies who will join him. The new appointments are set to be announced by August 15, increasing Yahoo's … Read more

The shareholder approval ratings for Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang and Roy Bostock plunged Tuesday after Yahoo released new results that corrected a vote transmission error.

Shareholders unhappy with board members withheld their votes in the Friday election. In Yahoo's official voting tally released Friday, 14.6 percent of votes for Yang and 20.5 percent for Bostock were withheld.

But in the corrected results, Yang's withhold percentage rose to 33.7 percent and Bostock's to 39.6 percent, Yahoo said.

Update 2:09 p.m. PDT: Quantitatively, the change means nothing: "These errors did not … Read more

Yahoo said it plans to update a shareholder vote results after an error in transmission meant some dissatisfaction with Yahoo management wasn't reflected in Friday's board member election figures.

Capital Research Global Investors, suspecting an error in the Yahoo vote tally, said on Monday that it requested that the firm it uses to transmit the votes to Yahoo check its work to see if there was an error. On Tuesday, that firm, Broadridge Financial Solutions, said it found a "truncation error" that underreported how many votes were withheld for some board members.

Withholding votes in a … Read more

Update at 3:08 p.m. PDT, with Carl Icahn's appointment to the board and closing stock price.

The results are in on the re-election of Yahoo's directors, and the damage is not as bad as last year. No one received more than a 22.1 percent withhold vote, compared with a substantially higher 34 percent last year, according to the company.

Shareholders withhold votes to re-elect directors as a means to send a message of investor dissatisfaction to a company and its board.

Here's how each director stacked up on their re-election:

Roy Bostock, chairman, a … Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif.--Yahoo stuck to its script Friday, arguing at its annual shareholder meeting that it's poised for greater financial success, but at least some shareholders left unsatisfied with the performance by Chief Executive Jerry Yang and Chairman Roy Bostock.

"I like Jerry, but I think a new CEO is needed," said Eric Jackson of Ironfire Capital, which controls 3.2 million Yahoo shares, in an interview after the two-hour meeting here wound down. And that's not all--he also wants to see board members Bostock, Eric Hippeau, Arthur Kern, and Ron Burkle step down. And … Read more

Time Warner has reportedly objected to the appointment of former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller to Yahoo's board of directors, according to Techcrunch.

Miller was one of three potential new board members at Yahoo as the company moves to quell shareholder angst and avoid trouble with investor Carl Icahn. After Friday's shareholder meeting, Icahn is scheduled to take one slot on Yahoo's board then help select two others by August 15. Yahoo had asked that Miller, who is a founding partner of investment firm Velocity Interactive Group, step in.

Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes had initially approved the … Read more

Updated 1:51 p.m. PDT: Adds Microsoft statement and some investor comments from the presentation.

Yahoo investors came to the annual shareholders meeting Friday looking for answers on the failed bid by Microsoft.

And while Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock, speaking early during the meeting, covered a fair amount of ground on the long-running melodrama of Microsoft's buyout bid and subsequent developments, there were two things missing from his presentation.

One, how the company came to the conclusion that a $33 a share Microsoft buyout offer wasn't rich enough and why a counter of $37 a share was … Read more