Yahoo board wins shareholder support

By Candice Jones, ITWeb online telecoms editor

Johannesburg, 04 Aug 2008

Showing support for Yahoo's decision not to sell to Microsoft, shareholders have voted to re-elect the company's board at its annual meeting on Friday.

According to a statement filed after the meeting last week, Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock garnered over 85% of votes in his favour. Bostock's ability to lead the Internet search company was called into question when he, along with the other board members, rejected a buyout offer by Microsoft in January.

Microsoft's first offer was $31 a share or $44 billion for all of Yahoo. Bostock and Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang were adamant the amount undervalued the company. High stake investor and now board member Carl Icahn stirred the pot, saying a deal with Microsoft would be "in the best interest of Yahoo investors".

However, his vote of no confidence in the board was quickly retracted after Bostock and Yang agreed to give him a seat on the board, as well as accepting his nominations for two other board members.

The agreement was struck between Icahn and Yahoo last month in an attempt to quell the investor's attempt to overthrow the board and implement one of his own choosing. At the time, Icahn said he was pleased with his appointment; however, he is still convinced the company should be sold as a whole to Microsoft.

International analysts say Icahn's agreement with Yahoo makes it less likely that a deal will be struck with the software giant.

Icahn will take of the seat of Robert Kotick, who resigned directly after Friday's vote. Reports indicated that Icahn was not present the annual meeting.

In his public statement, Bostock said: "We now look forward to executing on our strategy and continuing to build our great company. Yahoo has made significant strides in executing on its strategy, performing particularly well in light of the challenging circumstances of the past six months."

According to Yahoo's statement, the board will be expanded from nine to 11 members. The first nine were elected at the meeting and the final two are expected to be appointed by 15 August.