fighting

A dissident shareholder is pushing Yahoo to accept a mixed board of directors drawn from company nominees and those presented by billionaire investor Carl Icahn, according to a report by Reuters.

Eric Jackson, manager of hedge fund Ironfire Capital and leader of shareholder group Yahoo Plan B, on Sunday said he would encourage his shareholder group Yahoo Plan B to elect five Yahoo directors and four Icahn nominees, Reuters reported. His group is made up of 150 Yahoo stockholders representing 3.2 million Yahoo shares.

"It's become clear over the last two weeks that many shareholders are reluctant … Read more

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

Yahoo's share price has been hit with an 8.6 percent decline over the past two days, signaling investors may be less than thrilled with Microsoft's sweetened offer to buy the Internet pioneer's search assets.

That may be problematic for investor activist Carl Icahn, who is hoping to use Microsoft's sweetened bid as a means to entice Yahoo investors to vote for his slate of dissident directors, as he seeks to oust Yahoo's current board of directors in a proxy battle.

Yahoo closed at $21.54 a share on Tuesday, down 8.6 percent since … Read more

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

Microsoft jumped into the brawl between Yahoo and investor activist Carl Icahn on Monday, issuing a "set-the-record-straight" statement on its rejected sweetened offer for Yahoo's search business.

For starters, the software giant's search-only proposal "did not include changes to Yahoo's governance."

In other words, it was Icahn, the other half of Microsoft's joint proposal, who was asking for all Yahoo board members and top management to resign immediately. But even Icahn, in his letter to shareholders Monday, noted he was willing to discuss keeping some of the Yahoo directors around, and even … Read more

With the fight between Yahoo and investor activist Carl Icahn expected to accelerate in the coming weeks leading up to the company's August 1 shareholder meeting, Yahoo CEO and founder Jerry Yang sent an e-mail to employees warning them of the pending mess and offered a Q&A:

yahoos,

on friday evening, our board received a search and restructuring proposal from microsoft and carl icahn. in essence, this proposal would hand over to microsoft yahoo's search business and the rest of the business to carl icahn. our … Read more

Yahoo and investor activist Carl Icahn threw proverbial punches at each other Monday, disputing the validity of the value assessments each put on Microsoft's failed sweetened bid to acquire just the search assets of Yahoo.

The dog fight between Yahoo and Icahn is just beginning, following Icahn's filing of his final proxy Monday, indicating he is seeking to oust all of Yahoo's nine directors at its August 1 shareholders meeting.

Icahn's definitive proxy was filed after the search-only buyout talks broke down again over the weekend. Icahn, as he noted in an open letter to Yahoo shareholders, … Read more

For those wondering what activist investor Carl Icahn has to say about his announcement on Monday in running a slate of nine candidates to replace Yahoo's entire board or directors, here's his letter to Yahoo shareholders:

Dear fellow Yahoo shareholders:

We are significant shareholders of Yahoo, with an investment of approximately 4.98 percent of the company's outstanding common shares. We believe that NOW IS THE TIME TO ENTER INTO A SIGNIFICANT TRANSACTION WITH MICROSOFT.

To that end, we have nominated nine directors to replace Yahoo's current board. We urge you to read the enclosed proxy … Read more

Investor activist Carl Icahn is seeking control of the Yahoo board and will run a slate of nine dissident directors, according to his definitive proxy, filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Over the weekend, a final attempt to strike a deal failed, when Yahoo rejected a joint-proposal by Icahn and Microsoft. That deal called for Microsoft to acquire Yahoo's search business, while turning over control of Yahoo's board to Icahn's slate of dissident directors.

Icahn's announcement Monday finally answers the question that has left investors wondering whether he would try to oust Yahoo's … Read more