WSJ: Yahoo board game may provoke shareholder revolt

http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/17197.html "> Beijing time December 5 News, according to the Wall Street Journal, Silver Lake and Yahoo Jerry Yang just as" one yin and one yang ", but in Yahoo's way out, Shareholders have at least something to say.

Now Yahoo is no longer a giant. Not to mention the share price, in business alone, Yahoo has been suppressed for years as Facebook and Google have moved aggressively through online advertising. Without a strategy to reverse the situation, it wants to prove to shareholders what it is doing, and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and other board directors may decide to sell minority stakes to bidders, including Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz and Microsoft.

Deals are tempting for these consortia. First, if such deals are reached, the consortium can actually control the Yahoo board, including the possible nomination of a new CEO. If you buy 16.6 dollars (the price is still under discussion), the deal is quite affordable for the consortium. According to Stifel Nicolaus estimates, Yahoo Japan, Alibaba assets after-tax value equivalent to 12.2 U.S. dollars per share, the consortium won the core business of Yahoo 4.4 dollars per share, and Yahoo also holds cash. The price is less than 4 times times the profit before Yahoo's interest-tax depreciation next year.

The consortium may receive priority shares, which are higher than common stock and can give priority to reasonable dividends, which can be converted into common stock if things go well. In addition, because the investment does not exceed 20% of Yahoo shares, the board can avoid the shareholder vote.

The avoidance of voting has been the most contentious part of a potential trading scheme.

There is no deal yet, and the private-equity firm, Texas Pacific Group, is on the way, and Yahoo is likely to get better prices for its investment terms. But if Yahoo really wants to give real control to investment groups, that's a big step forward, not to mention preferred shares of potential investment terms, or to give shareholders room to speak.

Yahoo does not need the cash in Silver Lake, it really wants to clean up the business. Since 2006, Yahoo employees have grown by 20%, while net revenue has been flat. At the same time, according to emarketer's estimate, Facebook employs only Yahoo One-fourth, and the revenue is roughly the same.

With Yahoo's board unable to reverse the situation, Silver Lake is likely to succeed. Yahoo investors may benefit. When Silver Lake bought Skype from ebay and sold it to Microsoft, it was a lucrative one, although in the end ebay still held shares and split some of its profits, but Silver Lake was also a beneficiary.

Given that Yahoo needs a new team, it could be done by extreme means.