By Kevin McCauley
Yahoo! said Wednesday it's disappointed that investor Third Point LLC and its chief Dan Loeb have "chosen a potentially disruptive path" by launching a proxy fight for the troubled online media giant.
The proxy contest comes "just as the company is moving forward under new leadership to aggressively increase the value of Yahoo! for the benefit of all its shareholders," according to its press statement.
Third Point, which owns 5.6 percent of Yahoo!, nominated a dissident slate of directors for election at its next annual meeting.
It includes Loeb, founder of the $8.7B private equity fund; Jeff Zucker, former CEO of NBCUniversal; Harry Wilson, CEO of corporate turnaround advisor MAEVA Group and a member of the president's automotive task force that restructured General Motors, and Michael Wolfe, ex-president of MTV Networks and former head of the media and entertainment groups at management consultants Booz Allen Hamilton and McKinsey & Co.
In its Feb. 14 Securities and Exchange filing, Loeb said Yahoo!'s two new directors, Maynard Webb and Fred Amoroso, were "hand-picked choices of the current board" and do "nothing to allay investor fears that Yahoo is poised to repeat errors of the past."
Third Point rapped press reports that Yahoo!'s "current strategic direction is to emphasis the technology aspects" of its business at the expense of advertising and media.
Its nominees will provide the "fresh perspective and necessary experience to overhaul the company's challenged organizational and operating structure," according to the federal filing. |