Cisco had a couple of notable updates in the past day or so. Somewhat surprisingly, Cisco shareholders decided to keep former Yahoo! chief executives Carol Bartz and Jerry Yang on the company’s board. Some  have raised concerns regarding the board members’ salary in relation to their position.

“Two former Yahoo CEOs were up for reelection as Cisco board members and despite their somewhat sullied reputations as of 2011, Cisco shareholders opted to keep them.

Carol Bartz and Jerry Yang will remain as key advisors for Cisco. Bartz’s role at Cisco is the lead independent director while Yang’s title is simply director.”

Bartz was the president and CEO of Yahoo! from 1983 to 1992. Yang holds the title of co-founder, and also served as the web portal’s chief until 2008.

Shortly after the board’s consolidation was announced, a news report that looks into Cisco’s affairs with the government on taxation was picked up by the Associated Press. The networking solutions maker spent $850,000 in the third quarter lobbying several agencies on corporate taxes. That’s compared to $540,000 in Q2 and $830,000 in the first quarter of 2011.

Cisco addressed Congress, the Federal Communications Commission, the Transportation Department and the Commerce Department with what has become a rather frequent complaint among large firms: the 35 percent corporate tax rate on any finances held in the U.S.

The company’s financial position is the concern of several parties; its shareholders are among those that have been watching how Cisco is handling itself during an extensive restructuring process.  One of its latest moves was to bundle up several data center, unified sharing and software solutions in a single portfolio that’s designed to show customers where Cisco is headed in the cloud.