Yahoo! names Icahn's allies on new board
- Added:
- Aug 18, 2008
Yahoo has appointed of two former media and technology executives to its board of directors in a bid to appease dissident investor Carl Icahn.
Frank Biondi, the former head of both Universal Studios and Viacom, will join the board of 11 alongside US mobile company Nextel's former chief executive, John Chapple.
The appointments follow a truce with Icahn, who spent several billion dollars on buying 5% of Yahoo's stock and is trying to push the company towards renegotiating a takeover deal with Microsoft.
To fend off a complete takeover at the company's annual shareholder meeting two weeks ago, Yahoo agreed to give Icahn a seat on the board along with two of his proposed directors.
Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock said in a statement that the company is "pleased to add people of Frank's and John's calibre" to Yahoo's board.
Biondi, currently president of investment advisors Waterview, spent two years at the head of Universal Studios and nine years as the chief executive of Viacom.
Chapple was chief executive of Nextel between 1998 and 2006, and also worked for mobile firms McCaw and AT&T. Both men now work for investment firms.
