Icahn nominees appointed to Yahoo board

by Tristan O'Carroll, Media Week 15-Aug-08, 10:30

LONDON - Yahoo has appointed former Viacom and Universal Studios chief Frank Biondi and former Nextel Partners boss John Chapple to its board of directors, fulfilling a pledge it made to settle a shareholder tussle with billionaire investor Carl Icahn.

Icahn, who spent billions of dollars in recent months to build up a 5% stake in the company, had been pushing for the complete removal of Yahoo's board. In its place, he wanted to install executives who were open to selling Yahoo to Microsoft, which failed in several attempts to acquire Yahoo this year.

Last month, however, Yahoo agreed to offer Icahn and his nominated associates several seats on an expanded Yahoo board. After it became evident that he would fail to win sufficient shareholder votes to win control of the board, Icahn accepted the offer.

Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock said: "Frank's extensive experience in the entertainment and media industries, combined with John's deep management experience in telecommunications, will provide valuable perspectives to our already diverse board.

"We look forward to working with them as our board continues its ongoing efforts to enhance stockholder value."