Icahn writes another bloody letter

Shareholders now unable to open front doors

By John Oates • Get more from this author

Posted in Financial News, 14th July 2008 14:54 GMT

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Yahoo! shareholders will be picking yet another letter from Carl Icahn off their doormats today, as his attempted takeover bid gets ever more bad-tempered.

Icahn's letter breaks into capital letters to warn shareholders: "DON'T BE FOOLED" and "ARE YOU, THE REAL OWNERS OF YAHOO!, WILLING TO TAKE THE SAME RISK?".

The letter said: "I have yet to see a company distort, omit and twist events and facts in the manner that Yahoo! has done in their press release issued Saturday night, July 12th."

Referring to Yahoo!'s wish to have its search revenues guaranteed in the event of a deal the letter said: "However, after I negotiated with Steve Ballmer for the better part of a week, he agreed to the guarantee. He also agreed to commit $7.7 billion dollars to the transaction (consisting of a $1 billion payment for "Search", a $2.8 billion loan and a $3.9 billion tender offer to Yahoo! shareholders)."

The ornery Icahn said Yahoo!'s press release on Saturday neglected to mention the guarantee, or that the board did not have to be replaced. He calls on shareholders to vote for his slate of directors by filling in the gold proxy card.

Yahoo! has also written another letter to shareholders decrying Icahn's bid and calling on shareholders to complete the white proxy card in support of the existing board of directors. ®

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