Russian investor Digital Sky Technologies appears to be hungry for a bigger piece of Facebook.
The firm just finished spending $100 million to purchase current and former Facebook employees’ shares of the company, on top of a $200 million direct investment into the social-networking site earlier this year.
Google Inc.’s acquisition of video compression software maker On2 Technologies Inc. has been challenged in court by On2 shareholders who claim the deal’s $106.5 million price tag is “unfair.”
A provocative story from Reuters Monday ruminated on which companies are likely to replace Citigroup and General Motors in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Its conclusion: Google and Cisco are the most likely contenders, with Apple and Visa having a less likely chance.
Don’t you hate to be left out when everyone is partying?
So imagine how Yahoo (YHOO) shareholders must feel this morning. Of the 15 most active Nasdaq issues this morning, 14 of them are trading higher. And then there’s Yahoo, down $1.42, or 6.8 percent, to $19.40.
Looks like Chris Gorog really was serious about selling off perennially troubled Napster, after all. He’s selling the company to Best Buy for $121 million. That’s $2.65 per share, which works out to be $54 million net of cash.
Dirk Meyer was six months out of college and working as an engineer for Intel when he ran into Bob Noyce, the company’s legendary co-founder and co-inventor of the integrated circuit, at the punch bowl at a shareholders meeting.
Cablevision this morning said its board has authorized management to explore options for boosting its stock price. Options include buying back stock, paying regular dividends, spinning off parts of the company “and other potential strategies.”
Should he be or not be the CEO?
That is the question many are asking this week about Jerry Yang, the Yahoo co-founder and chief executive who’s marking his first anniversary in the top job.
Like Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Yang has suffered “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” since he soundly rejected Microsoft’s offer to buy Yahoo at an initial 62 percent premium.
Now that Microsoft has withdrawn its unsolicited buyout bid, Yahoo investors who are outraged and seeking to extract some pain may gear up to engage in several actions, ranging from gunning for a board seat to voting “against” re-electing the company’s slate, say proxy solicitors and M&A attorneys.
Eric Jackson, a Yahoo shareholder activist, falls into both camps. On Sunday, Jackson said he’s planning to launch a “withhold vote” campaign and hopes to run for a board seat when Yahoo holds its next annual shareholders meeting.
“I’m definitely interested in throwing my hat in the ring, if it’s allowable, and plan to talk to other shareholders,” said Jackson, founder of hedge fund Ironfire Capital. “And whether it’s me or other people who get elected, that’s fine. Yahoo’s current board definitely needs new blood.”
Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang will be slammed in the media over the next coming weeks. In my opinion, the criticism will be well founded. It is very tough to make an argument that Mr. Yang is acting in the best interest of his shareholders in rejecting Microsoft’s buyout offer. Personally, I can’t wait to see how long it takes the share price to reach $33. Good luck, Mr. Yang.
Companies (at least publicly traded ones) are beholden to shareholders. But they also are beholden to their employees. And while most Softies are afraid to state for the record that they think Microsoft should abandon its takeover of Yahoo, that opinion is a real and prevailing sentiment among many in the Microsoft ranks.
Microsoft shareholders hate the Yahoo deal (as they should–because it will be a disaster). Now that Yahoo’s last propaganda effort–”alternatives”–is petering out, its next one should be aimed directly at these angry shareholders.
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