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With the Yahoo shareholders meeting ending up without much flare (it had to since Icahn pull off his socks by first negotiating with Yahoo and team and then not attending the meeting), things were pretty gloomy as had been expected. Of course it had to, as people (reporters) had been punching into the Icahn/Yang slashing, then switching over to the Microsoft/Yahoo saga; which began from the dead deal to breathing a new life before it finally collapsed into oblivion as Yahoo turned the deal down and Microsoft went onto cry over the Yahoo/Google deal in the senate. But the question here pops out, ‘after all the mud-slinging and sledge-hammering will this deal between Microsoft and Yahoo re-start?’
Many would speculate over the matter but it appears to be still breathing within the shareholders and the Yahoo board especially with Icahn having three seats tucked under his belt; chances are that there will be attempts made to entice Microsoft coming up with another deal that Yahoo’s board would have to give way to.
Of all the people who attended the meeting only Yang appeared optimistic (or at least tried with all the practice he had been putting) the rest appeared to simply shredding words to carry on the meeting only for the heck of it. News from Chris Preimesberger reported Eric Jackson; president of Ironfire Capital of Naples, Fla. (a firm that owns 3.2 million shares) had some different views. He added:
The company needs to make some fundamental changes if it’s going to improve its performance and stock price. Yahoo is too bloated right now; they need to reduce head count, focus on core businesses and divest some of their holdings that aren’t making any money," the candid Jackson told me after the meeting.
‘Focus’ is the first word that catches the eye followed by making up a new strategy and rid themselves of holding assets that are non-profitable. Now Yang did propose certain transformation of strategies that would bring Yahoo back in the run. But when is this ‘new makeover’ coming up? Jackson added:
But it’s only about the second inning [of the company comeback], although it’s been the second inning for a long time. There have been a lot of pitches and foul balls.
Now he also voiced another concern that Icahn had been drawing swords for; which points at new leadership adding:
They’ve been doing stuff, but obviously most of those criticisms are still valid today. It’s going to take a lot of work and new leadership — and preferably from the outside.
Outside’ definitely points at replacing the current board, tipping in that every other person is just gulping down with tolerance the present board and time would soon come when some serious make-over will take place.
It is here we get to focus more on another attempt by Microsoft to try and bid for Yahoo; (the search business or the entire company). We all know that the dead deal with Microsoft had cost Yahoo shareholders dearly as they lost a chance of a lifetime to boost their stock value by more than $10 a share. Jackson remarked:
"But I don’t think it’s completely dead. I believe …will come back around next year and try again."
The reason he gave for such a far fetched prediction was bang on spot as we all know how terribly Microsoft suffers in its online business (not to forget its failed attempts to be artistic!). Jackson commented why he thought so by saying:
I had never used Microsoft search before a couple of weeks ago. I sat down to try it and then realized I had no idea what to type in. I tried Microsoft.com, but the only search bar was to help me search MSFT internal directories. I then remembered seeing some advertisement for ‘Live Search,’ so I tried Livesearch.com. It was some spam site. Finally, I tried Live.com, and the results were no good. I will never use it again.
This pretty much points out why shareholders and even Microsoft would be keen enough to have another go at trying a Yahoo deal. let’s just wait till the next year and see what drama springs up between the two.
But whatever the current remarks make their way to the news. I personally think that the new board would be seriously analysing (scrutinizing) the board for the year to follow, keeping a close watch at how things proceed and whether to keep or dispose products that prove no good to the company. What ever it turns out to be, I guess things have calmed down for the present at least; perhaps giving each member time to focus and re-think of a strategy that brings Yahoo back on track.
