In light of a pending shareholder meeting on August 1, Yahoo has released a 32-page slide presentation highlighting the reasons why the company’s board of directors rejected Microsoft’s unsolicited bid earlier this year.
The document, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission today, also explains why the company believes its board of directors is the best group to lead the company — and not investor Carl Icahn, who has launched a proxy fight.
Icahn did not respond to a request for comment by press time. However, in a blog post dated June 27, he wrote that he planned to give his “views about Yahoo and its management shortly.”
In addition to reasons why Yahoo’s board rejected Microsoft’s unsolicited bid of $31 per share in January, the presentation explains why the company felt that Microsoft’s search-only “hybrid” proposal was not worth pursuing and why it chose to sign a non-exclusive ad services agreement with Google.
“Despite all the challenges we’ve been through, including Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal and now a proxy contest by Carl Icahn, Yahoo remains a unique value proposition,” said Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang in a statement. “Our ubiquitous brand name, top-ranked online properties and deep talent pool have enabled us to continue to drive our ‘starting points’ and ‘must buy’ strategies.”
