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Carl Icahn Takes on Yahoo's Board
narramissic and several others have written to point out that Carl Icahn has initiated a proxy battle with Yahoo's board of directors over their rejection of Microsoft's bid for the company in February. Icahn has purchased millions of Yahoo shares over the past week and assembled a group of nine other investors (including Mark Cuban) to persuade the board to resume talks with Microsoft. Yahoo remains unimpressed. Icahn's letter to Yahoo accuses:
"It is unconscionable that you have not allowed your shareholders to choose to accept an offer that represented a 72% premium over Yahoo's closing price of $19.18 on the day before the initial Microsoft offer. I and many of your shareholders strongly believe that a combination between Yahoo and Microsoft would form a dynamic company and more importantly would be a force strong enough to compete with Google on the Internet."
I can see how Yahoo would help Microsoft compete with Google. But how does Microsoft help Yahoo?
He doesn't care about a merger, he wants Yahoo to pay him to fuck off. Look up "greenmail" on wikipedia.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
What offer is this idiot talking about?
From TFA: "I and many of your shareholders strongly believe that a combination between Yahoo and Microsoft would form a dynamic company"
Microsoft, on the other hand, says it is no longer interested http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/may08/05-03letter.mspx
I've followed the /. headlines over this lack of a deal, and have been generally surprised by the neoliberals ordaining that the yahoo board had a duty to sell the company for short-term advantage. Despite the fact that under any decent discount rate, the whole proposal represented little more than a bet.
Even if regulated accounting doesn't float your boat, the ideas of Fischer Black (eg. http://www.amazon.com/Fischer-Black-Revolutionary-Idea-Finance/dp/0471457329/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1210920867&sr=11-1
) can't be ignored. Under that light, the entire deal seems to be more involved in noise trading than any solid economic expansion.
So according to this guy:
...
Microsoft + Yahoo = "Dynamic" ?
I think he's way off base. If Microsoft is going to be a Dynamic Duo with anyone, it would be more likely some organization that thinks like them and can compliment their business practices, such as:
Microsoft + Halliburton
Microsoft + SCO (oops, already happened)
Microsoft + Phillip Morris
Microsoft + the Mafia
Microsoft + Dow Chemical
Microsoft + Exxon Mobile
You're exactly right. Icahn is nothing more than a corporate raider- he buys just enough shares of a company to get a controlling state so that he could suck the company dry. He pretty much single-handedly destroyed TWA (IIRC, the biggest airline in the 80s) in the late 80s/early 90s by selling off its most profitable ventures. By the time TWA could oust him, the damage had already be done, and they went bankrupt.
He recently tried to do the same thing to Motorola (disclaimer- I'm a current shareholder of MOT, and despise him) before the shareholder vote kept him out of the board- he still sued the company to force Motorola to sell its mobile business so he can cash out quickly.
Interestingly, he owns a hefty stake of Take Two. He may try the same shit if EA comes back with a bigger offer.
He has no other vision than seeing dollar signs as quick as possible (at any cost) and doesn't care any about the long-term health of the companies he plunders. Thousands have lost their jobs and even more small-time retail investors have been trampled on by him.
He's the worst kind of trader. In fact, I welcome short hedges more than seeing him scoop up shares of companies that I have positions in.
Sigs are for losers