Yahoo! board! adds! Icahn! allies!

Bazillionaire waves 55 million shares

By Cade Metz in San Francisco • Get more from this author

Posted in Financial News, 14th August 2008 23:13 GMT

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Following through on its pact with Wall Street kingpin Carl Icahn, Yahoo! said today that two Icahn pals have been added to its board of directors.

In late July, Icahn called off his Yahoo! proxy battle in exchange for three board seats: one for himself and two more to be filled with two other names from his list of nominees. Icahn officially joined the board just after the company's annual shareholders' meeting, and today, Yahoo! announced the appointment of former Viacom CEO Frank Biondi and former Nextel Partners CEO John Chapple.

"We are pleased to add people of Frank's and John's caliber to our board," said a canned statement from Yahoo! chairman and Icahn pen pal Roy Bostock. "Frank's extensive experience in the entertainment and media industries, combined with John's deep management experience in telecommunications, will provide valuable perspectives to our already diverse board. We look forward to working with them as our board continues its ongoing efforts to enhance stockholder value."

There's that phrase again, all you stockholders. Yahoo! really wants you to know it's really working hard to boost your shares.

The seats filled by Biondi and Chapple are brand spanking new. With its Icahn pact, Yahoo! swelled its board from 9 to 11 seats. Icahn took a seat vacated by Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick.

Icahn's original plan was to replace Yahoo!'s entire board and sell the company to Microsoft. In case you missed it: Yahoo! recently rejected a $44bn takeover bid from Steve Ballmer and crew.

Meanwhile, Icahn Capital says that as of June 30, it held 55 million Yahoo! shares - roughly 4 per cent of the outstanding stock.

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