Yahoo! announced on Monday it has reached an agreement with corporate raider Carl Icahn, ending his effort to oust the internet giant’s board over its handling of a takeover bid from Microsoft.
Under the deal, Icahn, who owns about 5% of Yahoo! shares, agreed to withdraw his nominees for consideration at the company’s annual meeting of shareholders on August 1 and will get a seat on the board, Yahoo! said in a statement.
“I am very pleased that this settlement will allow me to work in partnership with Yahoo!’s board and management team to help the company achieve its full potential,” Icahn said in the statement.
At the August 1 annual meeting, eight members of Yahoo!’s current board of directors will stand for re-election and one will not.
Following the meeting, the board will be expanded to 11 members, with Icahn, who owns 4,98% of Yahoo!, appointed to the board.
The board’s nominating committee will fill the remaining two seats from a list of nine candidates recommended by Icahn.
The United States billionaire, who accuses the board of botching earlier takeover talks with Microsoft, had been trying to convince shareholders to back his slate of board nominees since mid-May.
Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo! for $44,6-billion in stock and cash on January 31, but withdrew its offer on May 3, saying Yahoo! refused to budge despite the software giant upping its offer to nearly $50-billion.
Yahoo! later tried to revive talks with Microsoft, with Yahoo! rejecting an offer to acquire only its search business and Microsoft saying it was no longer interested in buying all of Yahoo!.
Microsoft had wanted to acquire Yahoo! in order to better battle Google, which claims the lion’s share of the multibillion-dollar internet search and advertising market.
“This agreement will not only allow Yahoo! to put the distraction of the proxy contest behind us, it will allow the company to continue pursuing its strategy of being the starting point for internet users and a must-buy for advertisers,” Yahoo! co-founder and chief executive Jerry Yang said in the statement.
After ending talks with Microsoft, Yahoo! announced an alliance with rival Google to put the internet search king’s expertise to work pumping money from its floundering rival’s online advertising.
Yahoo! predicts the Google alliance will boost its revenues by $250-million to $450-million in its first year. — AFP