Billionaire investor Carl Icahn continued his epistolary shouting match with Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock on Monday with a letter in which he urges Bostock to justify his director compensation by releasing his time sheets and accuses him of purposefully not answering questions.
What's clear from the tone and frequency of Icahn's letters is that he seems more and more convinced that, as a Yahoo investor, he needs to push his slate of candidates to unseat the company's directors at the next shareholder meeting in August and, he hopes, bring Microsoft back to the negotiating table.
Separately on Monday, Yahoo announced the filing of its Definitive Proxy Statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, in which the company, unsurprisingly, urges shareholders to re-elect the current board and reject Icahn's candidates.
Calling the upcoming meeting on August 1 "the most important for stockholders in our history," Bostock and CEO Jerry Yang said in the proxy statement that the board and management's strategy "to create value ... is gaining traction."
The focus of the latest angry exchange of letters, which started last week, is Yahoo's adoption of an employee severance plan that both Icahn and Yahoo shareholders suing the company allege was implemented to sabotage Microsoft's attempt to acquire Yahoo.
Bostock and Yahoo's top executives maintain that the severance plan was necessary in order to retain employees in light of the uncertainty created by Microsoft's pursuit of Yahoo, which officially ended after three months in early May.
"I cannot understand why the Yahoo board feels so strongly about its 'poison pill' severance plan and why it continues to refuse to rescind it. How can you continue to repeat that your severance plan is in the best interests of shareholders and employees?" Icahn wrote in Monday's letter.
Yahoo didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, but on Friday issued a brief statement saying that Icahn, in his previous missive, had inaccurately interpreted the "retention" plan and that his suggestions that the plan be cancelled would have a "destabilizing impact" on the company. Yahoo also accused Icahn of having "no credible plan to operate" the company.
The brevity and content of Yahoo's statement on Friday clearly irked Icahn, who ripped into Bostock on Monday.
"In your press release from Friday, you stated again that I do not have a credible plan for Yahoo. Did you even bother to read my letter, which went into great detail on what measures I would ask the new board to take? Ironically, while you keep inquiring about my plans, it is interesting to note that Yahoo's board has been busy reaping great compensation benefits. Indeed, you made approximately $10,000 per week last year -- not bad for a board member. I believe most of your shareholders would be interested in seeing your time sheets -- especially in light of the fact that, in my estimation, most of your so-called 'plans' over the last few years have been failures," Icahn wrote.
Icahn also reiterates his call for removing Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang as CEO and returning his "Chief Yahoo" title, so that the company can hire "a talented and experienced" replacement, offering Google CEO Eric Schmidt as a model.
Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. Discover the advantages of an open architecture multi-vendor network solution
Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Enterprise Planning
How to improve employee productivity in small and medium businesses
The state of Middleware
Best Practice in Building an Integrated Information Management Strategy
Email Archiving Implementation: Five Costly Mistakes to Avoid
Taking On Demand CRM Integration to the Next Level
Refresh your AUP: Top tips to ensure your acceptable use policy is fit for purpose
Zones provide focussed content from Computerworld and leading technology partners.Discover how SOA can create smarter outcomes for your business.
Attend and learn:
- How SOA is helping leading companies to become more agile
- Where you should be applying SOA processes in your company
- The top SOA implementation mistakes to avoid
Click here for more information.
- +
Computerworld Live Podcast #97: The Future of Enterprise Networking 25/07/2008 09:45:36
This week CW Live chats with Mark Thompson, global sales and marketing manager for HP ProCurve, on the future of the enterprise networking. Mark discusses the trends we can expect to see in the near future and how the right infrastructure can ensure your enterprise network is secure. - +
Computerworld Live Podcast #96: Security at the Edge 11/06/2008 09:22:22
CW Live speaks with Amol Mitra, HP ProCurve Director of Marketing for Asia Pacific and Japan. Today's topic: how enterprises are starting to shift away from simply controlling security via server logins, firewalls and moving to more adaptive security frameworks. - +
Data Management Edition #10: Multi-Petascale Systems 02/05/2008 09:12:33
This week we look at sustainability and the development of multicore technologies to build multi-petascale systems. - +
IT Security Edition #11: How to poison the Storm botnet 01/05/2008 08:51:55
This week CW Live presents a case study on how to poison the notorious Storm botnet . Plus we take a look at Cisco's plans for Ironport. - +
IT Security Edition #10: Cyber-battles fought and won 24/04/2008 11:09:47
Vendors bow to end user pressure to improve product security, and we take a look at the latest concepts shaping the cyber-battlefield of the future.
Sterling Commerce Speeds Long-Distance Delivery of Large Files 2008-12-03 09:28:00+11
FrontRange Solutions launches HEAT Plus Mobile to reduce help desk costs and improve service management productivity 2008-12-02 15:15:00+11
AARNet Helps to Advance Indigenous Health 2008-12-02 12:44:00+11
Orbis selects Telstra International as its data centre partner for the UK, Europe and Middle East Region 2008-12-02 11:23:00+11
ComOps Deploys Corporate Performance Reporting Solution For Healthcare Test Manufacturer 2008-12-02 10:09:00+11
Business Intelligence and Enterprise Performance Management: Trends for Emerging Businesses
Hyperion surveyed 163 companies to understand BI and EPM requirements, evaluation processes, and extent of adoption. Top areas of current and future investment for emerging businesses include budgeting and planning as well as management reporting solutions. Read on to discover more.












