Top Yahoo shareholder unhappy with sale talks

By Peter Lauria and Alexei Oreskovic

Thu Nov 10, 2011 8:30am IST

REUTERS – Capital Research and Management, Yahoo Inc’s top shareholder, is “extremely unhappy” with the way the Internet company is handling sale discussions, according to a source familiar with the institutional investor’s thinking.

CapRe has been “extremely unhappy with Yahoo’s board in recent years as well as with the way it is handling the current strategic review process,” the source said.

CapRe contacted Yahoo’s board in recent days to express concerns over some of its sale discussions, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Wednesday, citing sources.

But the source who talked with Reuters said he had no direct knowledge of whether the managers that oversee CapRe’s Yahoo investment expressed their displeasure to Yahoo’s board board.

According to a Reuters report from early October, which cited multiple sources, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang was exploring a deal with private equity firms to take Yahoo off the public markets in part because that would represent his best chance of remaining involved with the company.

A representative of Yahoo’s board on Wednesday referred

to a statement issued on Friday last week, which said that the board’s strategic review is being “properly managed for the benefit of all shareholders.”

Also last week, Yang came under a fresh attack from Daniel Loeb, chief executive officer of shareholder and activist hedge fund Third Point LLC, who demanded his resignation.

In a letter to Yahoo’s board, Loeb said he was “deeply concerned” Yahoo is looking at deals that will allow private equity firms to gain substantial equity positions in the company.

(Reporting by Peter Lauria in New York and Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco; writing by Jonathan Spicer in New York; editing by Carol Bishopric)

Article source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/INtechnologyNews/~3/cm-PJu1MXEU/idINIndia-60432620111110

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