Yahoo Annual Meeting Delayed; Preliminary Proxy Filed
This story was written by Joseph Weisenthal.
There's a flurry coming out of Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) this afternoon. Besides announcing the departure of director Ed Kozel, the company says it is delaying its annual meeting. From a just-filed 8-K: "The Company filed its preliminary proxy materials on May 22, 2008 and is postponing the Company's annual meeting until a date to be determined by the Board of Directors pending review and clearance of the Company's proxy materials by the SEC. The record date for the annual meeting has been set as the close of business on June 3, 2008. The date for the annual meeting is currently expected to be around the end of July 2008."
Separately the company has made its preliminary proxy filing, and no surprise, it's urging shareholders to vote against the Icahn slate. Icahn filed his slate earlier this week.
And it turns out that Icahn isn't the only horse in this race. There are some third party candidates as well: "In addition to the Icahn Entities, two individual stockholders have provided notice that they intend to nominate themselves for election as directors at the annual meeting and a third individual stockholder has provided notice that he intends to nominate nine (9) individuals (not including himself) for election as directors at the annual meeting. We do not believe that any of these stockholders have complied with the requirements of the Company's bylaws and we reserve all of our rights relating to such nominations, including the right to declare to the annual meeting that the nominations were defective and shall be disregarded."
Also you've got your now-standard litany of shareholders' proposals on matters relating to censorship, human rights and executive pay controls. Yahoo, of course, urges shareholders to vote against each of these. When the meeting is held, this will be the least of the drama.
Work in progress
By Joseph Weisenthal