Icahn appointed to Yahoo! board

Yahoo! Inc. has reached a compromise with billionaire investor Carl Icahn that will avoid the full scale battle over control of the company that was expected at the 1 August shareholders meeting.┬á  The agreement means the Yahoo! board will expand to eleven members, to accommodate Icahn himself and two from the alternative slate of nominees he had initially set up to challenge the existing board. One member of the current nine member board, Robert Kotick, has decided to stand down.┬á┬á Icahn had threatened to unseat the board after Yahoo! had rejected a takeover offer from Microsoft. He owns almost five percent of Yahoo! shares, making him the second-biggest institutional investor, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. ┬á┬á "We are gratified to have reached this agreement, which serves the best interests of all Yahoo! stockholders," said Yahoo! chairman Roy Bostock. "We look forward to working productively with Carl and the new members of the Board on continuing to improve the company's performance and enhancing stockholder value. Yahoo! is a world-class company with an extremely bright future, and collaborating together, I believe we can help the company achieve its ambitious goals." ┬á┬á Co-founder and chief executive Jerry Yang also welcomed the settlement. "This agreement will not only allow Yahoo! to put the distraction of the proxy contest behind us, it will allow the company to continue pursuing its strategy of being the starting point for Internet users and a must buy for advertisers," he said.┬á┬á Icahn welcomed the agreement, too, but has not given up on the idea of selling the company. "I am very pleased that this settlement will allow me to work in partnership with Yahoo!'s board and management team to help the company achieve its full potential,ÔÇØ he said. ÔÇ£While I continue to believe that the sale of the whole company or the sale of its search business in the right transaction must be given full consideration, I share the view that Yahoo!'s valuable collection of assets positions it well to continue expanding its online leadership and enhancing returns to stockholders. ┬á┬á ÔÇ£I believe this is a good outcome and that we will have a strong working relationship going forward," he continued. "Additionally, I am happy that the board has agreed in the settlement agreement that any meaningful transaction, including the strategy in dealing with that transaction, will be fully discussed with the entire board before any final decision is made."  Read the announcement in full here.┬á┬á  *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á * ┬á┬á