Dallas’ Mark Cuban to join Yahoo’s Board!
May 15, 2008
If Carl Icahn has his way, Mark will be in the cat bird’s seat at his old company. From Carl’s letter:
“During the past week, a number of shareholders have asked me to lead a proxy fight to attempt to remove the current board and to establish a new board which would attempt to negotiate a successful merger with Microsoft, something that in my opinion the current board has completely botched. I believe that a combination between Microsoft and Yahoo is by far the most sensible path for both companies. I have therefore taken the following actions: (1) during the last 10 days, I have purchased approximately 59 million shares and share-equivalents of Yahoo; (2) I have formed a 10-person slate which will stand for election against the current board; and (3) I have sought antitrust clearance from the Federal Trade Commission to acquire up to approximately $2.5 billion worth of Yahoo stock. The biographies of the members of our slate are attached to this letter. A more formal notification is being delivered today to Yahoo under separate cover.”
Proposed directors include: himself, Keith Meister (his number two), Frank Biondi, Lucian Bebcuk, John Chapple, Adam Dell, Edward Meyer, Brian Posner and Robert Shaye.
Any idea what Carl is doing? I think it is obvious, there is about $472MM laying on the ground that he can pick up (i.e. he has 59 million shares costing around $25 and he can sell them to Microsoft for $33-34 each). I suspect he has been talking to Microsoft, what do you think?
