Yahoo annual meeting to weigh Icahn's bid

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Yahoo Inc. said Tuesday that it bes after to throw its yearly meeting on Aug. 1, starting the countdown to an epic poem conflict with billionaire investor Carl Icahn.

Shareholders will make up one's mind who will command the Sunnyvale Web giant, which is facing intense examination in the aftermath of a failing coup d'etat command by competing Microsoft Corp.

Icahn is hoping to replace Yahoo's board, which he impeaches of bungling the negotiations, and restart amalgamation talks. Yahoo's managers are touting a three-year corporate makeover program in hopes of holding onto their seats.

The result of the fight, known as a placeholder contest, will largely find Yahoo's fate. Although still profitable, the Internet innovator have stumbled lately in the human face of stiff competition from industry leader Google Inc. of Mountain View.

In a taste sensation of the bare-knuckle tactics to come up in the placeholder campaign, Icahn told the Wall Street Diary in an interview published online Tuesday that he bes after to take Yokel chief executive officer Kraut Yang if he is successful in gaining control of the company. Icahn accused Yang and his chap board members of trying to undermine Microsoft's $47.5 billion coup d'etat bid, which he believes Yokel should have got accepted.

Icahn's remarks were spurred in portion by the release of tribunal written documents detailing a Yokel employee rupture program that would have got significantly increased the cost of an acquisition. The package, outlined in an investor suit, was set into topographic point shortly after Microsoft's amalgamation proposal and despite some concerns about the cost from Yokel employees and outside advisers.

Microsoft abruptly withdrew its amalgamation proposal May 3 after a three-month standoff when the two sides couldn't hold on a price.

Yahoo responded to Icahn's onslaught on Tuesday by saying in a statement: "Yahoo's board of directors, including Kraut Yang, have been crystal clear that it would see any proposal by Microsoft that was in the best involvements of its shareholders," while adding that "Mr. Icahn's averments disregard this clear factual record."

Initially, Yokel put its stockholder meeting for July 3, but then postponed it last month, saying regulators needed more than clip to reexamine the paperwork related to the placeholder contest. The hold bought Yokel some time, although it's unclear whether the other calendar month will assist the company addition stockholder support for the meeting, to be held at the Fairmont hotel in San Jose.

Several hedgerow funds, including one controlled by legendary billionaire investor T. Daniel Boone Pickens, have got recently bought billions of Yokel shares and program to vote in support of Icahn's slate of directors. Others on Icahn's slate include Dallas Mavericks proprietor Mark Cuban, former Viacom chief executive officer Frank Biondi and New Line Film co-CEO Henry Martin Robert Shaye.

In regulating filings, Yokel have urged its investors to back up the current nine-member board. In a regulating filing Tuesday, Yokel said two stockholders other than Icahn also had notified the company that they intended to put up themselves to the board. A 3rd stockholder said that he planned to put up a slate of nine directors, not including himself.

But Yahoo, which did not name the shareholders, said that they had failed to follow with the company's bylaws and therefore their campaigners might not be included in the approaching election. The deadline for nominations was May 15.

In related to news, Yokel have restarted negotiation with Microsoft about assorted advertisement partnerships, but not a full takeover.

E-mail Jules Verne Kopytoff at .