14 DAY TRIAL // Yahoo's between the chisel and the hammer right now, with members of the board not agreeing on what to do next, Microsoft breathing heavily down its neck, good people being laid off because of the salary they have and, as of late, because its shareholders have started to voice out about their take on the whole situation. All the people talking at once should give Jerry Yang a headache at the very least.
If most of the former problems have been listed and talked about in detail, the shareholders have just recently began sharing their opinions freely, so without being unexpected it's something new and different from all the talks that happened so far. Techland reports that Bill Miller, the fund manager for Legg Mason, Yahoo!'s second-largest stockholder, wrote in a letter to his investors that he only expected Microsoft to "do what it takes" in order to take over the Sunnyvale-based company.
"We think it will be hard for Yahoo to come up with alternatives that deliver more value than Microsoft will ultimately be willing to pay," Miller wrote. Simple as that, Microsoft - 1, Yahoo! - 0.
Ironfire Capital and Yahoo! shareholder Eric Jackson, who last year hoped to oust Terry Semel (CEO at the time) was more direct and said that: "We believe the Yahoo board does not have the moral authority to represent our views as shareholders in discussions with Microsoft or any other company who wants to buy Yahoo," he wrote on his blog. So far, he has managed to round up 130 shareholders around his cause, accounting for less than 1 percent of the Yahoo! shares. His Plan B is that "Rather than sit back and watch this board supposedly acting on behalf of our interest, we want to make it clear that we want a deal - whether it's with Microsoft or someone else." Microsoft - 2, Yahoo - 0.
On to the biggest fish in the pond, Yahoo!'s number one shareholder, Capital Research chose not to comment, but it is rumored that Microsoft's Steve Ballmer had a meeting last week with its fund managers. Microsoft - 3, Yahoo - 0.