These changes obviously left some vacancies on Yahoo’s board – and purged the board of any who had rejected Microsoft (MSFT)’s $45 billion buyout offer for Yahoo in 2008. Loeb, who is the largest shareholder outside the firm, recently nominated himself and and three others to the board – Maeva Group CEO Harry Wilson, former MTV Networks President Michael Wolf and former NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker. In a letter defending his candidates and chastising Yahoo for not giving those candidates appropriate consideration, Loeb said that his intention was to “ensure Yahoo! maintains its place as a premier internet company by forcefully addressing the immediate strategic and operational challenges it faces.” Loeb continued by saying, “With such a reconstituted Board in place, a powerful strategic planning committee would promptly but thoughtfully map out a plan to take full advantage of the Company’s valuable assets and stop its painful decay.”
On Sunday, Yahoo named three new directors – John D. Hayes, an executive at credit card company American Express (AXP); Peter Liguori, a former chief operating officer of Discovery Communications (DISCA); and Thomas J. McInerney, outgoing chief financial officer of Internet company IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI) – and said that Loeb nominee Harry Wilson could be an acceptable option and that it would consider a second, “mutually acceptable” candidate. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company defended itself by saying that the candidates it selected were “more qualified” than Loeb.
In response, “Loeb wrote that Yahoo has informed him he would be ‘conflicted’ as a director due to the 5.8% stake that his firm, Third Point LLC, has acquired in the company–which could lead Loeb to seek a ‘short term’ solution to Yahoo’s difficulties.”
