No Fireworks at Yahoo AGM

Jerry Yang has survived the company’s lackluster performance and continues to reassure shareholder that Yahoo has a plan, according to The New York Times. “We want to grow the business over a three- to five-year period. We are executing against that plan. And we are still doing that despite all the stuff that’s happened to us,” Yang told the NYTimes.

Carl Icahn noted in his blog that he would not be attending the meeting. He said, “The proxy fight is over and it will not do shareholder or Yahoo! any good to have the annual meeting turn into a media event for no purpose.”

Apart from some criticism by a small amount of shareholders, the meeting was sedate at most. Yang’s ability to weather the storm and keep both activist investor Carl Icahn and Microsoft CEO Steven A. Ballmer at bay, is surprising to a lot of people.

Despite Yang surviving the latest bouts of disagreements, his position as Yahoo’s CEO remains in question. A good number of shareholders remain livid with the failed Microsoft merger. One shareholder told the NYTimes, “I think they had an opportunity to get something done in the palm of their hand, and they bungled it,” said Eric Jackson, following the meeting on August 1.

Jackson is part of an individual shareholder group that holds approximately 3.2 million Yahoo shares. On Friday, 15 percent of the shares represented at the meeting voted against Yang’s re-election to the board, a strong indication that his leadership remains largely in question.

Despite the continued doubts, Yang is determined to make positive changes for Yahoo. “I am more determined and more excited than ever to see those changes through,” he said to the NYTimes.