Loeb vs. Yahoo: Battle of the Board
In what could be seen as move to spite Daniel S. Loeb, an American hedge fund manager and founder of Third Point, activist investor and owner of a large stake in Yahoo, the company appointed three new directors during the weekend instead of Loeb’s alternate slate of directors.
The three new appointees include the experienced media exec Peter Liguori, John D. Hayes, EVP and CMO of American Express Company, and Thomas J. McInerney, the outgoing CFO of IAC/InterActiveCorp.
Loeb wanted to be part of Yahoo’s board, together with former NBC head Jeff Zucker, and media exec Michael Wolf. Yahoo stated that they would agree to accept Third Point’s choice of turnaround specialist Harry Wilson and another director to be mutually agreed on, but that Loeb had rejected the offer.
“The Board remains open to hearing Third Point’s ideas and to working constructively with Third Point, but believes that appointing Mr. Loeb to the Board is not in the best interest of the Company and its shareholders,” said Yahoo in its statement.
There are five vacant slots in Yahoo’s Board of Directors. In February, the company had already appointed two: former Rovi CEO Fred Amoroso and LiveOps Chairman (and former CEO) Maynard Webb, who was once COO of eBay.
Loeb already filed preliminary proxy documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission stating that “installing the hand-picked choices of the current Board does nothing to allay concerns that the Company is poised to repeat the errors of its past.” Loeb resorted to filing with the SEC because the company has been “dismissive” of his alternate slate of board members.
“The Board’s stonewalling, apparent insouciance and decision not to engage with us in a serious manner, has left us no choice but to directly approach our fellow owners with the Shareholder Slate,” Loeb wrote in a letter to Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson. “Accordingly, we hereby notify you that we intend to file our Preliminary Proxy Statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission within the week.”
This isn’t the first time Loeb demanded something from Yahoo. In September 2011, when then Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz was fired, Loeb demanded the resignation of Roy Bostock and fellow Directors Arthur Kern, and Vyomesh Joshi as Bostock was the one responsible for Bartz’s hiring, as well as turning down the 2008 Microsoft deal, which was valued at $45 billion.
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