Yahoo dissidents demand vote recount

 

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Posted on 5 Aug 2008 at 08:53

Jerry Yang's problems with his board may not be over yet, after one of the company's largest shareholders demanded a probe into last week's vote.

Yang has been under pressure for months over failed negotiations to sell the company to Microsoft, but Friday's shareholder vote suggested the tide was turning in his favour.

However, Capital Research Global, which holds 16% of Yahoo's shares has now called in a third party to double-check the votes, calling into question the strong showing for Yang, which saw him pick up 85.4% support, with the rest withholding in protest.

Indeed investors gave solid support for all nine board directors, with the lowest level of support coming for long-time member Arthur Kern, who drew 77.9% support

"We were surprised at the very high vote counts that were pro Jerry Yang," says Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Jeffrey Lindsay. "Certainly the final results seemed very different from the exit polls."

Eric Jackson, a small shareholder and vocal critic of Yahoo's management, has also cried foul over the results, claiming that there appeared to be a major discrepancy in the total number of votes cast in the 2008 election compared with 2007 or 2006.

For example, around 167 million fewer votes were cast this year in voting on whether to re-elect Yang than were cast last year.

"It seems odd that fewer shares would be voted this year compared to last, when there's been such additional scrutiny on the company in the wake of the dealings with Microsoft and Carl Icahn," says Jackson, who leads a grassroots group of dissident shareholders that collectively own 3.2 million shares of the company.

Yahoo said in a statement it was not party to any errors that may have been made in the voting process.

"The independent inspector of elections certified the results of the election and Yahoo accurately announced those results," a company statement reads.

"Yahoo did not participate in the execution of the votes and was not a party to any errors which may have been made either by a voting institution or a proxy processing intermediary acting on behalf of banks, brokers and institutions."

Author: Reuters