Billionaire corporate raider Carl Icahn today announced plans to launch a bid to replace the board of Yahoo, saying the Internet firm had 'completely botched' merger talks with Microsoft.
Icahn said in an open letter to the Yahoo board that he had acquired 59 million shares of Yahoo and had formed a 10-person slate which will stand for election against the current board.
'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,' Icahn said in the letter.
'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'.
He added that in the past week, 'a number of shareholders have asked me to lead a proxy fight to attempt to remove the current board and to establish a new board which would attempt to negotiate a successful merger with Microsoft, something that in my opinion the current board has completely botched.'
Icahn said a combination between Microsoft and Yahoo 'is by far the most sensible path for both companies'.
Earlier this month, Microsoft withdrew its offer to buy Yahoo. Talks between the two companies broke down after they failed to agree on a price.
Microsoft set out to buy Yahoo! three months ago so it could compete with Google, which dominates the lucrative market for internet advertising.
Microsoft had been willing to pay the equivalent of €31 billion or €21 a share, but Yahoo had insisted on €34 billionn or €24 a share.
