Has the drama finally ended? According to a press release issued today, it seems that Yahoo! and Carl Icahn, who was seeking to replace much if not all of Yahoo!'s Board of Directors (BoD) during the upcoming August 1st shareholders meeting, have come to an agreement.
While in February Legg-Mason recommended that Yahoo! take a Microsoft offer, it said it should only do so if Microsoft boosted their offer to $40+ a share. In the upcoming fight that will likely occur at the August 1st Yahoo! shareholders meeting, Bill Miller, chief investment officer of Legg-Mason - although not guaranteeing to vote in that direction - said that it was his firm's "intention" to vote its 4.4% stake in Yahoo! in favor of the company's existing board.
On Monday Carl Icahn, who we know is not er, happy, about the lack of a deal between Microsoft and Yahoo!, cited discussions with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in an open letter he published.
On Thursday Carl Icahn launched his long-delayed blog, which was first announced in February. The Icahn Report, despite debuting on Thursday, already had seven entries, including one dated as early as June 12th.
You can't trust anyone nowadays. No sooner did Kevin Johnson, president of the Platforms and Services Division of Microsoft send an email to the "troops" explaining the Yahoo! situation, it was leaked.
Friday Yahoo! and Carl Icahn traded barbs back and forth. First Icahn responded to Yahoo! chairman Roy Bostock's response to a June 4 letter raising concerns about a Yahoo employee compensation plan. Yahoo responded to Icahn’s letter by saying that he “has no credible plan to operate Yahoo.”
As Carl Icahn continues to press Yahoo!, including looking to oust the Yahoo! board, Microsoft issued a statement on Sunday which indicated that it may still be looking a deal with Yahoo!, but a "different" one.
