Arguably that’s what Marissa Mayer has attempted to do since becoming CEO of Yahoo back in 2012, but clearly not everyone has been fans of her acquisition strategy which has seen the firm buy up various startups and shift its focus to mobile advertising.
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Activist Yahoo shareholder Starboard Value has criticized the sale process, calling it “too slow” and “fraught with conflicts of interest”, and it is trying to have the board replaced.
“The board and management have continually failed to live up to their own promises and shouldn’t be trusted with the decision on whether Yahoo should remain an independent company”, the paper reported, citing the letter.
“Starboard, which owns 1.7 percent of Yahoo, wants its own members on the board as a replacement when the annual shareholder meeting is held in June 2016”.
“We have been extremely disappointed with Yahoo’s dismal financial performance”, Starboard said in its latest letter to Yahoo, adding that its need to officially launch a proxy fight was “unfortunate”. Yahoo has been looking for buyers to sell off its core online business including search, mail and news sites, reports CNet. Even in a shareholder vote, the outcome may be decisively influenced by the votes of many mutual and index funds. Yahoo appointed two new directors without Starboard’s approval earlier this month as it prepared for a boardroom battle.
Starboard’s nominees include its chief executive, Jeffrey Smith, and Eddy Hartenstein, the former chief executive of Tribune Co; Bridget Baker, NBCUniversal’s former president of TV Networks Distribution; and Rick Hill, the former chairman of Tessera Technologies.
Microsoft is of course interested in prolonging the Yahoo-Bing search deal as long as possible, it’s helped to build up search share for Bing, although it hasn’t been particularly lucrative for either Yahoo or Microsoft.
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The hedge fund interviewed more than 100 candidates for its director slate, according to a person familiar with the matter. Analysts have estimated that Yahoo’s Internet operations, including popular email, sports and finance services, could fetch anywhere from $4 billion to $8 billion in an auction. Japan, shares have rumbled higher by 11% in the past month.
