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Signaling that he wants to invest up to $2.5 billion, activist investor Carl Icahn on Thursday launched a proxy contest at Yahoo! Inc., nominating 10 directors in the hopes of negotiating a successful merger with Microsoft Corp.
In a letter addressed to Yahoo!
chairman Roy Bostock, Icahn said: "It is clear to me that the board of directors
of Yahoo has acted irrationally and lost the faith of shareholders and
Microsoft."
He called the $33 per share offer price a "superior alternative" to the company's standalone prospects and pointed out that it represented a 72% premium over Yahoo's closing price of $19.18 ahead of the offer. Microsoft originally put forth a $31 per share offer and withdrew its $47.5 billion bid May 3 after it was repeatedly rebuffed. Icahn's slate includes: himself; Harvard Law
professor Lucian Bebchuk; Frank J. Biondi Jr., the one-time CEO of Viacom and
Universal Studios; John H. Chapple, president of Hawkeye Investments LLC; Dallas
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban; Adam Dell, an Impact Venture Partners managing
general partner; Keith A. Meister, the principle executive officer and vice
chairman of Icahn Enterprises; Edward H. Meyer, chairman, chief executive and
chief investment officer of investment management firm Ocean Road Advisors Inc.,
Brian S. Posner, former chief executive and co-chief investment officer of
ClearBridge Advisors LLC, and Robert K. Shaye, co-chairman and co-CEO of New
Line Cinema. -- Carolyn Murphy
See the open letter See Dealwatch: Yahoo! See Dealwatch: Carl Icahn Categories Deal Video
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