Yahoo board re-elected after blasting by shareholders
Sunday, 3 August 2008
SAN JOSE, California, Aug 2 (AFP): Yahoo executives were resoundingly re-elected after being berated by shareholders over failed takeover talks with Microsoft and for exposing Internet dissidents to Chinese officials.
Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang got 85.40 per cent of the votes cast by shareholders while board chairman Roy Bostock got the support of 79.50 per cent of the shareholders.
The weakest support was shown for incumbent Arthur Kern, who won 77.90 per cent of the votes.
"It does look like they have support of the shareholders again, but at the end of the day they have to focus on the company goals and execute," said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley.
The votes were tallied after Yang and Bostock, two key players in drama-filled negotiations with Microsoft, faced approximately 150 shareholders in a hotel ballroom in downtown San Jose, California.
Voices of support and criticism rose from the gathering, with one shareholder calling for Bostock to resign and another praising Yahoo for saving the firm from "over-the-hill green-tentacled octopus" Microsoft.
"I think you overpaid on compensation; I think you overplayed your hand with Microsoft, and I think you overstayed your welcome after last year's vote and should do the honourable thing and step down from this board," stockholder Eric Jackson of Ironfire Capital said during comments from the gathering.
Bostock responded to Jackson with a "No."
"With all the hoopla, with all of the publicity that has surrounded the company in the past six months there has been a great deal of misunderstanding," Bostock told the gathering.
Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang got 85.40 per cent of the votes cast by shareholders while board chairman Roy Bostock got the support of 79.50 per cent of the shareholders.
The weakest support was shown for incumbent Arthur Kern, who won 77.90 per cent of the votes.
"It does look like they have support of the shareholders again, but at the end of the day they have to focus on the company goals and execute," said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley.
The votes were tallied after Yang and Bostock, two key players in drama-filled negotiations with Microsoft, faced approximately 150 shareholders in a hotel ballroom in downtown San Jose, California.
Voices of support and criticism rose from the gathering, with one shareholder calling for Bostock to resign and another praising Yahoo for saving the firm from "over-the-hill green-tentacled octopus" Microsoft.
"I think you overpaid on compensation; I think you overplayed your hand with Microsoft, and I think you overstayed your welcome after last year's vote and should do the honourable thing and step down from this board," stockholder Eric Jackson of Ironfire Capital said during comments from the gathering.
Bostock responded to Jackson with a "No."
"With all the hoopla, with all of the publicity that has surrounded the company in the past six months there has been a great deal of misunderstanding," Bostock told the gathering.