People who would have voted in favor of Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo, were they on the Yahoo board, no longer need to wonder if Microsoft will nominate them to do that task.
Microsoft erased the slate of names of possible Yahoo board members, as the company abandoned its pursuit of Yahoo and a $33 per share takeover offer. Those names needed to be submitted to Yahoo by May 15th for consideration by shareholders.
Yahoo announced on May 5th its plan to hold their annual meeting on July 3rd. Anyone wishing to nominate candidates to Yahoo’s board has ten days from the announcement to make those intentions known.
The Wall Street Journal claimed Microsoft’s nominees received an email from Microsoft’s law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. This message advised the nominees they were being released from their commitment.
Yahoo put itself in a bad position by putting all of its board seats up for election at the same time. Microsoft hoped to take advantage of this in its takeover gambit, but Yahoo was able to delay the announcement of its annual meeting and buy more time to try and stop the takeover.
Ultimately their digging in at a high stock price and Microsoft’s unwillingness to pursue a hostile takeover ended the acquisition attempt. By sending off the alternative board nominees, Microsoft won’t be the one to promote new directors who would favor a takeover.
It is possible another shareholder could nominate board members to try and salvage the Microsoft deal. Yahoo won’t be out of the threat of a hostile takeover until the 15th passes and no other nominations have been presented for a vote to shareholders.
