Yahoo postpones shareholder meeting

Yahoo board running scared from disgruntled shareholders

Yahoo has postponed its annual general meeting, which activist shareholder Carl Icahn had threatened to disrupt by attempting to replace the entire board.

Yahoo will now delay its annual general meeting, due to take place until later this year, in the hope that this will give it enough time to draw the sting out of its shareholders' ire.

Icahn had wanted to replace Yahoo's entire board. His frustration with the current board stems from its failure to strike a deal with Microsoft.

Microsoft abandoned its efforts to acquire Yahoo earlier this month.

Since then the two companies have met to discuss alternative transactions, possibly involving the sale of Yahoo's search business to Microsoft. And it is by no means clear what more an alternative board could achieve, given that Microsoft bosses claim to no longer be interested in an outright purchase at this time.

Nevertheless, the abortive takeover offer from Microsoft continues to overshadow Yahoo's operations. And while Yahoo has been trying to demonstrate that it has a future as a standalone entity, with the release of its Search Monkey platform, the continuing shareholder unhappiness will act like a festering sore for the company.

Furthermore, under company laws, Yahoo is scheduled to hold a shareholder meeting by 12 July – or 13 months after the previous one. Failure to do so could risk further shareholder action against the company.

While that action may take as long as 90 days to reach court, it would ratchet up the pressure on the current board even more.