Icahn spews green ink at Yahoo!
Enough with the letters Carl, get yourself a penpal
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Carl Icahn has written an open letter in reply to Yahoo!'s latest press release on his attempted hostile takeover of the company.
And it looks a bit like one of our "Flame of the Week" emails . Or like a dipsomaniac shouting at the bins in a neglected alleyway.
The letter, addressed to Yahoo!'s chairman Roy Bostock, begins by wondering if Yahoo had even read his last missive. It accuses the company of: "repeating misstatements in the hope it will convince its shareholders that these misstatements are valid."
The increasingly petulant Icahn then asks: "Ironically, while you keep inquiring about my plans, it is interesting to note that Yahoo!'s board has been busy reaping great compensation benefits." Why is that ironic?
Then Icahn asks why these directors are so well-paid before reminding us: "Remember the old adage - those who live in glass houses should not throw stones." Which seems a bit odd ironic for the man who wants one of these highly-paid jobs.
Icahn then returns to the only actually concrete plan part of his cunning plan - getting rid of Jerry Yang.
The letter says: "It is extremely important to note that Google hired a great operator as a CEO who helped to transform the Company into a giant at the expense of Yahoo!" Nice words for Eric Schmidt of course, but not very enlightening as to what Icahn actually wants Yahoo! to be.
The full letter is available here. ®
COMMENTS
Replace Yang
The sooner someone replaces with someone even halfway competent the better. As a business plan for Yahoo, sacking Yang strikes me as a good half of the problem solved - that's clearly more business plan than Yang has himself. Especially since he refused the best offer for the company that he's ever likely to see without even considering it. Google has beaten Yahoo in the search wars, and unless Yang realises this and does some radical things (like selling to Microsoft) the company in the long term is pretty doomed and will simply decay share price until someone does buy it.
If Icahn loses, then Yahoo would be a great stock to short - it's certainly going nowhere.
Roll up roll up roll up, Yahoo going cheap
I reckon, once he's beheaded Yahoo, and made it into a shape where the only end game is a fire sale to Microsoft at any price, they'd offer him $20 a share. They're not stupid, there's no other bidders, and no reason to pay more for a company that's been prepped only for a quick sale.
I always think that once they start doing insults, it's an admission they've lost the argument. And with Icahn now on the insult stage it means he's lost and he knows it.
am I right in thinking
am I right in thinking that this guy is just like those "carpetbaggers" here in the uk that joined builing societies to convince them to demutualize, make a quick profit off the shares, and laugh while everyone else got a bad deal?
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