SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo Inc.’s recent truce with investor Carl Icahn didn’t pacify many shareholders who remain on the warpath heading into the Internet company’s annual meeting today.
The slings and arrows are expected to include a significant number of votes opposing the re-election of the company’s current board of directors and a fusillade of criticism.
Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang, in particular, will probably get an earful after spurning a $47.5 billion takeover bid from Microsoft Corp. in early May.
Since Microsoft withdrew that offer, Yahoo’s stock price has plunged 30 percent to leave the company’s market value nearly $20 billion below what shareholders would have been paid if Yang and the rest of the board had accepted the bid.
“The Microsoft negotiations were just the latest example of the negligence by this board,” said Eric Jackson, a Yahoo shareholder who plans to confront Yang at today’s meeting. “There is still a lot of anger and frustration among shareholders right now.”
Jackson, who represents a group of stockholders with about 3.2 million shares, made an impression at Yahoo’s meeting last year when he ripped the performance of then-CEO Terry Semel, who six days later stepped down and surrendered the reins to Yang, Yahoo’s co-founder.
Icahn, a blunt billionaire who will join Yahoo’s board next week as part of his compromise with the company, already has said Yang, 39, should be cast aside for a more seasoned CEO. That idea may get more support when two Icahn allies join the Yahoo board by Aug. 15.
