Capital Research & Management

Reset: What's Next for Yahoo? (Merging With AOL? New Execs?)

Kara Swisher in News on September 22, 2008 at 7:22 am PT

When Yahoo holds its first board meeting tomorrow–with three new board members, including shareholder activist Carl Icahn–there will be little time for getting-to-know-you chitty-chat. In fact, it should be all business for the group, which needs to push the reset button hard for Yahoo. In fact, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is acutely aware that he and his management team have only a few months to really show investors and employees that they can get things moving at the beleaguered company. Thus, on deck: talks to buy Time Warner’s AOL, strategies to attract talent, and how to deal with the weak economy.

Microsoft (Inevitably) Weighs In on the Yahoo Shareholder Vote Miscount

Kara Swisher in News on August 6, 2008 at 12:08 am PT

Yesterday–in a patented playbook move–some top Microsoft execs didn’t miss a chance to slap around Yahoo over its shareholder vote debacle, letting it be known to industry insiders (on the very loud QT, of course) that the Internet company knew full well that its biggest investor, Capital Research & Management, was going to vote a large number of shares against it. In essence, Microsofties are arguing that knowledge of a major investor’s dissatisfaction should have prompted Yahoo to question its unusually positive voting results at its annual meeting on Friday and ask the outside voting tabulator to recheck its numbers before officially releasing them. While BoomTown is careful to consider the sources here–the collapse of Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo has left quite a bit of acrimony between the pair–they actually might have a point.

New Yahoo Shareholder Vote: Yang Disapproval More Than Doubles

Kara Swisher in News on August 5, 2008 at 2:06 pm PT

The vote is now in and it’s not so pretty for Yahoo, as it turns out. Broadridge Financial Solutions’ corrected tabulation of the vote at the Yahoo annual meeting on Aug. 1, without the “truncation errors,” came out and shareholders are actually mighty irked at Yahoo leadership. Most glaringly, it shows Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang’s disapproval more than double what was previously reported, rising from 14.6 percent votes withheld to 33.7 percent. Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock increased from 20.5 percent withheld votes to 39.5 percent. Yang, who has been under fire for his management of Yahoo, is likely to now endure yet another round of questioning about whether he should stay in his job in the wake of this clearly massive show of disapproval by investors.

Broadridge to Yahoo: Oops, We Added Wrong (and Shareholders Like You Lots Less)!

Kara Swisher in News on August 5, 2008 at 10:07 am PT

Here’s the full statement from the outside firm that tabulated Yahoo’s recent shareholder vote. Bottom line: An underreporting of shares withheld for certain directors, which the Lake Success, N.Y., firm is calling a “truncation error.” That sounds painful. And it is likely Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang will feel much of that pain, as sources said the shares are largely those that were withheld from him by disgruntled shareholders. The mistake will not change the vote’s overall outcome, but it will surely make Yang’s no-vote tally worse.

The Yahoo Shareholder Vote: Like Florida, Except More Confusing!

Kara Swisher in News on August 5, 2008 at 6:50 am PT

All Yahoo needs now is for former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris to show up and start recounting votes. It could happen, given all the crazy characters who have been drawn to the much-beleaguered Internet company like a magnet, in 2008. It’s almost as if there is a voodoo curse on Yahoo and, so, you didn’t think the digital gods would let it have more than one weekend of good news, did you? No, they will not, it seems.

Yahoo Shareholder Vote Number-Crunching–Whither Cap Re's No Vote?

Kara Swisher in News on August 4, 2008 at 2:39 pm PT

There is a mini-tempest brewing over how shares were tallied in the Yahoo annual meeting last Friday, specifically around whether a group of votes withheld by one of Yahoo’s major shareholders was not counted, counted incorrectly or even voted incorrectly by the investor. According to sources close to the thinking at Capital Research & Management, the proxy committees for its two large funds that hold a significant stake in Yahoo recommended last week that they withhold votes specifically from CEO Jerry Yang and from various board members, such as Chairman Roy Bostock, to register disappointment with their performance. Thus, sources said, the investment fund has approached outside vote tabulator Broadridge Financial Solutions, a Lake Success, N.Y.-based financial services company that does securities clearing and processing, about whether those votes were correctly counted.

Yahoo Annual Meeting Countdown (3 Days to Go!): Jerry's Staying Put!

Kara Swisher in News on July 29, 2008 at 1:16 am PT

It is not exactly news that influential major Yahoo investor Gordon Crawford was displeased with Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, given the amount of money Crawford must have lost by now, backing the troubled Internet company. What effect that will have on Yang, though, will probably be negligible–except for perhaps feeling badly, as he has great regard for Crawford–because I think he has never been more determined to stay put. In fact, I predict a series of partnerships and high-profile announcements–starting this week ahead of the annual meeting–to give Yahoo and Yang an image of momentum he dearly needs.

Major Yahoo Investor Leans Toward Backing Carl Icahn Too

Kara Swisher in News on July 7, 2008 at 9:46 am PT

Microsoft’s not the only one backing billionaire investor Carl Icahn in his quest to unseat Yahoo’s leadership and board–major Yahoo investor Gordon Crawford told Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang in a face-to-face meeting last week that he was seriously considering voting against Yahoo in the looming proxy fight. The troubled meeting that took place last Tuesday in Los Angeles between Capital Research Global Investors’ Crawford and Yang–accompanied by three Yahoo board members–could be seen as a portent of what is to come at the company’s annual meeting on August 1. And those signs are definitely not good for Yahoo’s current leaders.