fighting

Editor's note: This story was updated June 3, Tuesday, 2:41 p.m. PDT to include additional information and comments from an attorney representing investors in a shareholders' lawsuit against Yahoo.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn's proxy fight could trigger Yahoo's controversial "change in control" severance package, should his dissident slate win a majority of the board seats up for re-election, attorneys say.

That could throw a potential hurdle in Icahn's efforts to get his slate elected, in essence by potentially punishing any investor who votes to remove Yahoo's current board. The severance plans, … Read more

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has been relatively quiet since unveiling his slate of dissident directors to run against Yahoo's current board nearly two weeks ago.

Is the agitator of corporate America and merger matchmaker beginning to believe Microsoft won't come back to the table with another bid for Yahoo? Should investors be concerned?

"If Icahn hasn't turned up the heat a few weeks before Yahoo holds its (annual shareholders) meeting, I think shareholders will begin to wonder what's going on," said Chris Young, director of mergers and acquisitions research for RiskMetrics Group, an influential … Read more

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer made a few revealing comments Friday while speaking at a technology conference in Moscow.

The take-away from his speech, according to a Reuters report: Microsoft never viewed its proposed acquisition of Yahoo as strategic.

In other words, Redmond was prepared to pay tens of billions of dollars for a non-strategic acquisition? An acquisition that would, by far, be the largest in its history? Very interesting comments, indeed.

Here are Ballmer's exact words, per Reuters:

"Yahoo was never the strategy we were pursuing, it was a way to accelerate our online advertising business," … Read more

Yahoo investors who feel their hands are tied while sitting on the sidelines of a potential Microsoft-Yahoo search transaction may find a crack in the door to weigh in on the deal, legal experts say.

That crack, albeit small, could give Yahoo shareholders the right to vote on whether the Internet search pioneer would be able to sell its search business, say legal experts.

Under Section 271 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, companies are required to seek shareholder approval for any sale of "all or substantially all" of the corporation assets.

The "substantially all" is … Read more

Update 9:40 p.m. PDT: This blog has been updated with background of Ed Kozel's other director seats.

The longtime director of Yahoo's board, Edward Kozel, has resigned, the company announced Thursday. Yahoo also said it will delay its annual shareholder meeting.

Yahoo said Kozel, who has been a company director since October 2000, is resigning for personal reasons. The company is reducing its board from 10 members to 9 as a result.

Last week, billionaire investor Carl Icahn launched a proxy fight to unseat all 10 members of Yahoo's current board at the company's … Read more

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is sticking to the company line of give-me-a-piece-of-Yahoo-but-not-the-whole-enchilada.

That was the word he conveyed while in Israel to mark the opening of a new R&D facility, according to a Reuters report.

Ballmer's comments on Wednesday basically reiterated the stance the company took Sunday, when it announced it had re-entered talks with Yahoo.

"We are not bidding to buy Yahoo," Ballmer said in Israel, according to Reuters. "Yet, we are trying to have discussions about deals with Yahoo that might create value, but not a whole acquisition of the company." … Read more

A Delaware Chancery Court judge may decide within a week or two whether to unseal portions of an amended shareholder complaint against Yahoo, following a conference call with the parties on Tuesday.

The initial complaint centers on allegations that the Internet search pioneer stonewalled Microsoft's unsolicited buyout bid.

Two Detroit pension funds initially filed a lawsuit against Yahoo in late February (PDF). Three months later, the shareholders amended the complaint (PDF) with information gathered during the discovery process and depositions.

Yahoo seeks to keep information gathered in the discovery process and depositions sealed, while the plaintiffs want it unsealed. … Read more

Hedge fund Third Point and corporate raider T. Boone Pickens are the latest investors to snap up millions of Yahoo shares and throw their support behind billionaire investor Carl Icahn's proxy fight against the Internet pioneer, according to reports.

Third Point has recently amassed more than 5 million shares in Yahoo and has thrown its support behind Icahn's proxy fight, according to a Reuters report.

Citing a source, the report said the hedge fund could increase its stake up to 10 million shares in the company.

Meanwhile, corporate raider T. Boone Pickens is taking his lead from Carl … Read more

Update 10 a.m. PDT: Morning trading update and analyst report from Collins Stewart.

Shares of Yahoo received a boost in morning trading, following Microsoft's announcement over the weekend that the two companies have re-entered talks.

Yahoo climbed as high as $28.33 a share in early morning trading, before settling back a bit to $27.93 per share, up nearly 1 percent, as the morning progressed. Yahoo, on Friday, closed at $27.66 a share.

On Sunday, Microsoft announced a proposal that calls for a transaction, but would not involve the acquisition of all of Yahoo's assets. … Read more