Carl Icahn and Yahoo's board traded barbs once again on Friday as the billionaire investor increased his pressure on Yahoo to make a deal with Microsoft, demanding that the company put itself up for sale to Microsoft for a little more than $34 a share.
In a letter Friday to Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock, Icahnn told the board to stop avoiding the issue and publicly offer to sell the company to Microsoft for $34.375 a share, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, which posted the letter on its Web site.
[ For the complete saga of Microsoft's attempted takeover of Yahoo, check out InfoWorld's special report ]
The total would be about $49.5 billion, about $5 billion more than Microsoft's original Feb. 1 bid for the company and $2 billion more than the last offer Microsoft made before taking the deal off the table early last month.
"In my opinion, Microsoft does not believe you will ever sell the entire company on a friendly basis," Icahn wrote in the letter, according to the WSJ. "So why don't you stop dancing around the subject and publicly offer to sell the company to Microsoft for $34.375 per share and promise to cooperate completely?"
Yahoo's board responded immediately and harshly, accusing Icahn of having "no credible plan to operate Yahoo" and calling his demand that the company put itself up for sale publicly "ill-advised."
"We believe that Mr. Icahn's suggestion that we cancel our retention plan would have a destabilizing impact on Yahoo and would clearly not be in the best interest of our shareholders," Yahoo said in a statement.
Yahoo added that the company is still "open to any transaction including a sale to Microsoft if it is in the best interests of shareholders."
However, it's not clear if Microsoft is still interested in purchasing the company. Microsoft's last public statement on a possible deal was on May 18, when the company said it would consider a deal to purchase some but not all of Yahoo, but was not making a new bid to purchase the entire company.
Friday's exchange continues a week of letters between Icahn and Bostock over the proxy battle Icahn officially mounted against Yahoo on May 15, and pressure the investor continues to put on Yahoo's board to make a deal with Microsoft.
Icahn aims to remove Yahoo's board members, including Bostock and CEO Jerry Yang, at an August shareholder meeting and replace them with his own slate of directors. In a letter to Yahoo Tuesday, Icahn said he also planned to oust Yang as CEO if he is successful in removing the board.
This whitepaper explains the terminology and concepts behind Data Replication technologies and establishes some sizing rules through worked examples. Learn the new paradigm in disaster tolerance—protect data anywhere.
Download now »
Server virtualization is a popular option for dealing with mounting datacenter costs. Another equally promising approach is the use of an Application Delivery Controller. Citrix NetScaler provides a low-cost way for organizations to reduce their server count and accrue cost savings from a reduction in space, cooling, power and personnel.
Download now »
The emergence of WLANs has created a new breed of security threats to enterprise networks.
Included in HP ProCurve WLAN solutions is security technology that alleviates threats from WLANs through:
* Monitoring wireless activity inside and out of the enterprise
* Classifying WLAN transmissions into harmful and harmless
* Preventing transmissions that pose a security threat to the enterprise network
* Locating participating devices for physical remediation
Effectively address data protection challenges, implementing solutions that help store and protect business–critical data while cutting costs and improving efficiency and reliability.
Download now »
Sign up to receive InfoWorld Resource Alerts
Recommend This
