Icahn Wants Yang’s Head On A Platter

By John Carney

Carl Icahn said today that he will seek to oust Jerry Yang as Yahoo’s CEO if he wins his proxy fight bid to control the company’s board. Was this every in doubt?
What seems to have really annoyed Icahn is information released when a Delaware judge unsealed a shareholder suit against Yahoo. The unsealed pleadings revealed that even as Yahoo was claiming to consider the Microsoft bid, it adopted an expensive an employee-severance plan that Icahn is characterizing as an underhanded poison pill meant to scuttle the deal.
“It’s no longer a mystery to me why Microsoft’s offer isn’t around,” Icahn says in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. “How can Yahoo keep saying they’re willing to negotiate and sell the company on the one hand, while at the same time they’re completely sabotaging the process without telling anyone?”
In other news, the Yahoo board is scheduled to meet today.
Icahn Steps Up Yahoo Attack, Seeks Yang’s Ouster as CEO [Wall Street Journal]

Comments (7)

  1. 1
    Posted by guest | June 3, 2008 at 3:29 PM

    Yang, welcome to the grown-up world.

  2. 2
    Posted by guest | June 3, 2008 at 3:53 PM

    I wish Philo and I could prance around a garage and do whatever the fuck we want to do. Don’t you understand, we started this company and we should be able to run it the way we want even though we sold out to the pinstriped finance crowd years ago. We just want to have out cake and eat it too, is that so wrong?
    Jerry “Jerkoff” Yang

  3. 3
    Posted by guest | June 3, 2008 at 3:58 PM

    Fuck Carl Ichan….
    I’m sure the holders of BBI are ecstatic that each and every penny of cash go to subsidize his “shareholder value” line of garbage he espouses. Or the people who bought in on WCI, Rite aid…..etc
    He is nothing more than a Piece of shit looking to pad his own pockets all under the “shareholder value” mantra.
    MS

  4. 4
    Posted by Anal_yst | June 3, 2008 at 4:18 PM

    @ 3:58
    And this is news? Please.

  5. 5
    Posted by guest | June 3, 2008 at 4:30 PM

    The so called “poison pill” won’t matter anyway … it’s gonna give the regular employees 3 months pay – nothing short of border line “fair” anyways, plus VP’s and upward a handsome pay off, erm, that they’d get anyway! Plus MS will prob retain 85-90% of the Yahoo staffers … they’re in no disadvantaged position just because they’re the acquired … the businesses will rationalize with the best staff being retained. I’ve seen from the inside – twice.

  6. 6
    Posted by guest | June 3, 2008 at 5:35 PM

    @430 the issue is not retention, the issue is that the severance package facilitates – incentivizes – departures on unfavorable terms to Yahoo in the event of change of control

  7. 7
    Posted by NotNasser | June 4, 2008 at 10:09 AM

    Trying to get a court to keep a complaint under seal just so people won’t know about your business shenanigans — ain’t right Jer-meister.

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