Carl Icahn’s a busy guy–busier than usual lately penning broadsides against Yahoo. So he can be forgiven the 138-day delay in lauching “Icahn Report,” the blog he announced back in February. Earlier today the blog offered nothing more than a placeholder page, but a few moments ago it went live with Icahn’s promised anecdotes on “the desultory state of corporate governance in America.” And, specifically, Yahoo.
Carl Icahn has finally broken his silence. The outspoken billionaire investor who’s been oddly quiet since Yahoo announced its advertising partnership with Google, finally commented on the deal this morning saying it “might have some merit.”
The Yahoo-Microsoft debacle in Digital Daily intros, with apologies to Steven Speilberg, Mel Blanc, Queen, Neil Diamond, Barbara Streisand, Tallulah Bankhead & Marlene Dietrich, and the entire cast of The Sound of Music.
Carl Icahn’s a little quieter than usual today, isn’t he? After publicly cataloguing Yahoo’s failures of leadership for the better part of the week, he seems to have fallen silent after what may well be the company’s greatest failure of all.
Our long national nightmare of unceasing Yahoo-Microsoft headlines is finally over. Shares of Yahoo slipped into the mud this afternoon amid reports it has concluded whatever tortured discussions it’s been having with Microsoft without reaching any sort of merger agreement. Redmond, it seems, is no longer willing to pay $33 per share to acquire Yahoo. It is, however, open to discussing an “alternative transaction.” Meanwhile, Yahoo and Google are moving closer to a deal.
As predictable as the call and response between two chattering squirrel monkeys, the recent dialogue between Yahoo and Carl Icahn. And about as elevated.
Shareholders suing Yahoo’s board of directors for its alleged mishandling of the Microsoft buyout offer may find their efforts to pull the company’s controversial severance plan something of a fool’s errand. Because according to a new company filing, their chances of forcing Yahoo to scrap the plan are about as good as their chances of forcing CEO Jerry Yang to use capital letters in his all-hands memos just like a big boy.
By the time this Yahoo debacle has sorted itself out Carl Icahn may have done more to revive the long lost art of letter writing than to revive Yahoo itself. In another stink bomb of a letter to Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock today, the activist investor slagged the company’s leadership with particular vitriol. “… You made approximately $10,000 per week last year — not bad for a board member,” Icahn wrote. “I believe most of your shareholders would be interested in seeing your time sheets — especially in light of the fact that, in my estimation, most of your so-called “plans” over the last few years have been failures.”
Well, that was fast. Yahoo has issued a reply to Carl Icahn’s latest missive. Terse and caustic, it doesn’t really add much to the “conversation” between the two parties. Yahoo’s message to Icahn: You don’t have a credible plan to operate Yahoo either.
Carl Icahn wants a “talented and experienced CEO” helming Yahoo and apparently Jerry Yang doesn’t spring to mind as being either. In yet another harshly worded letter to Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock today, the billionaire investor said that if his proxy campaign succeeds, he’ll drag Jerry Yang out of the CEO chair and put him back where he belongs.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
Best use of the Beeker “meee” ever.
While the technology behind the Telephone is new, the design is reassuringly old-fashioned, reminiscent of a phrenologist’s horn or ear-candle in form. We found the experience far more comfortable than the one we had with the Telegraph.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
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