5 posts and columns on Frank Biondi

Where in the World Is Yahoo's Board?

in News on November 13, 2008 at 5:05 am PT

With a $10 stock price, the turning down of Microsoft’s $31 a share offer, a collapsed search ad deal with Google, fleeing execs and bad news aplenty, it’s easy to blame Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and call for his ouster. After all, the buck does stop with him. Or does it? Because, to my mind, if there is anyone to cast stones at in the ongoing crisis at Yahoo, BoomTown would have to toss a large boulder in the direction of the company’s incredibly shrinking board.

Meet the Internet's Human Pinata: Jerry Yang

in News on November 6, 2008 at 5:42 pm PT

Well, this was certainly predictable–the mindless piling on of Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang now taking place in the blogosphere, in the wake of yet another setback for the troubled Internet company. This time, it comes after the collapse of the search advertising deal with Google yesterday. BoomTown is not saying the co-founder of Yahoo does not deserve criticism for how he has run the company since last summer. Nonetheless, it is simply lazy to just call for Yang’s ouster as the panacea for what ails the company. It’s a feel-good suggestion, mixed with a creepy mob mentality, that offers no clear path to improvement.

Yahoo and AOL: Like Two Louts Merging to Make One Cretin

in News on September 24, 2008 at 7:40 am PT

Looks like Carl Icahn did show up to his first Yahoo board meeting, though it appears he wasn’t able to get much done. The new board, which also includes former Viacom CEO Frank Biondi and former CEO of Nextel Partners, John Chapple, reportedly met Tuesday and decided as a first course of business to talk to Time Warner about the future of its AOL division.

Carl Icahn's Yahoo Board Choices: Meyer and Biondi?

in News on August 12, 2008 at 7:25 am PT

Unless there is an 11th-hour change of heart from Time Warner, former AOL head Jon Miller will still not be Carl Icahn’s choice for the two other seats he will select–which requires Yahoo’s consent–to the board of the Internet company, set to be announced by Friday. Instead, several sources with knowledge of the situation think Icahn is likely to choose Edward Meyer (pictured here) and Frank Biondi, both of whom were on his alternative board slate when the activist investor was waging his now-defunct proxy fight against Yahoo.

BoomTown Plea to Jeff Bewkes: Free Jon Miller!

in News on August 1, 2008 at 4:41 pm PT

Yesterday, in what feels to BoomTown to be a deeply petty move, Time Warner said that it had blocked former AOL head Jon Miller from being considered as a possible Yahoo board member. The reason is a noncompete Miller signed, part of a severance agreement he reached with the media giant after it unceremoniously tossed him out in late 2006. A Time Warner spokesman said Miller was barred from working “for a variety of competitors, including Yahoo, until March of 2009.” Like it matters.