Apparently abandoning hopes for a truce with Yahoo Inc., investor Carl Icahn sharpened his focus on replacing the Internet company’s board Monday after his attempt to negotiate a deal with Microsoft Corp. was angrily rejected.
Icahn filed the final nominating papers for a slate of candidates that will oppose Yahoo’s current nine directors in a showdown scheduled for an Aug. 1 shareholder vote. In separate letter to Yahoo shareholders, Icahn accused the incumbent board of being more interested in protecting its jobs than evaluating the merits of Microsoft’s latest offer for Yahoo’s online search operations.
Icahn, who owns a 5 percent stake in Yahoo, also accused the board of misleading shareholders about some aspects of the proposal, which was rebuffed late Saturday.
“Our company is on a precipice and our board seems ready to take the risk of seeing it topple,” Icahn wrote to Yahoo shareholders.
Yahoo reiterated its disdain for Microsoft’s “ludicrous” offer in its own shareholder letter, which underscored the Silicon Valley company’s determination to fend off Icahn’s attempted coup.
“We are prepared to let you, our stockholders, not Microsoft and Carl Icahn, decide what is in your best interests and we look forward to the upcoming vote,” Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and Chief Executive Jerry Yang wrote.
Yang advised Yahoo’s employees to brace for even more turbulence during the next few weeks, predicting that Microsoft may make more buyout proposals as Icahn ridicules the board.
“The last few months and weeks have certainly been challenging, and the waters are not likely to calm before our stockholder meeting,” Yang wrote in one of two e-mails Monday to Yahoo employees and senior managers.
The standoff caused Yahoo shares to fall $1, or 4.2 percent, to finish at $22.57 in Monday’s trading. The stock price had surged 10 percent last week on hopes that Icahn might be able…