14 DAY TRIAL // After months of debating on what was in the best interests of Yahoo! and on who should occupy the privileged chairs on the board of directors, Yahoo! and Carl Icahn have announced they have reached a settlement. Today's press release clearly indicates that the company's representatives and the investor who launched a proxy fight are now looking in the same direction.
"I believe this is a good outcome and that we will have a strong working relationship going forward. Additionally, I am happy that the board has agreed in the settlement agreement that any meaningful transaction, including the strategy in dealing with that transaction, will be fully discussed with the entire board before any final decision is made," said Carl Icahn about the settlement, toning down his usual statements. He did not forget to underscore that his opinions about whether Yahoo! should sell the whole business or just the search assets remained intact.
In exchange for Icahn's support of the current board of directors, his slate of recommended candidates will be given 3 seats on the board. Eight out of nine current managers at Yahoo! will keep their positions, while one has resigned before the settlement, in the hope that the gesture would set the tense situation at ease.
Roy Bostock, Chairman of Yahoo! and Jerry Yang, CEO of the company, seem thrilled by the fact that the August 1 elections will not bring them any surprises. "This agreement will not only allow Yahoo! to put the distraction of the proxy contest behind us, it will allow the Company to continue pursuing its strategy of being the starting point for Internet users and a must buy for advertisers," Yang said.
The speech of the two Yahoo! representatives is very different from what we have become familiar with. In the past, when referring to Icahn, they used to doubt his moral and professional qualities. In today's press release, Bostock even called the investor on his first name, showing that all problems were clearly in the past.
Although the company's officials showed their best intentions, the button on Yahoo!'s homepage that leads to a website where Icahn's actions are ironically criticized has not yet been removed.