E-Commerce News: Boardroom

Icahn May Turn Yahoo Board to the Microsoft Side

Wednesday - May 14, 2008

An unlikely savior could bring Microsoft's failed bid for Yahoo back from the grave. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn may be mulling a proxy battle to replace the Web portal's board with one that's more friendly toward a Microsoft purchase. Icahn has not publicly stated his intentions, but he has accumulated more than 3.5 percent of the outstanding shares of Yahoo, beefing up his position in recent weeks to swell his ownership to about 50 million shares, according to reports. [More...]

Blockbuster Takes a Gander at Circuit City Books

Friday - May 9, 2008

Electronics retailer Circuit City Stores will allow Blockbuster and its largest shareholder, Carl Icahn, to look into the company's finances in connection with the video rental company's proposed buyout offer. Circuit City also revealed that it has hired Goldman Sachs to help the company look into strategic alternatives to build its shareholder value. [More...]

Google Butters Up Yahoo

Friday - May 9, 2008

Google's top executives on Thursday expressed hope that the Internet search leader will be able to form a potentially lucrative advertising partnership with Yahoo -- a deal that would lower the odds of Microsoft renewing its attempts to buy Yahoo. "We have been talking to Yahoo, and we are very excited to be working with them," Google cofounder Sergey Brin told reporters before the company's annual shareholders meeting. [More...]

Apple's Board: Still Room for Schmidt?

Thursday - May 8, 2008

Until now, having Google chief executive Eric Schmidt sit on Apple's board of directors has made a lot of sense. Google, the world's largest Web-search engine, is one of the most influential companies in technology. Google has been incredibly supportive of Apple's flagship computer, the Mac, and has developed a lot of software for Apple's music-playing iPhone. [More...]

CEOs: Change Will Be Permanent in Future Enterprise

Tuesday - May 6, 2008

Chief executive officers worldwide believe major change is coming to the global economy and their businesses, according to IBM's biennial study of CEOs. The executives are are also eager to find ways to keep happy consumers who are increasingly information-savvy and who expect the businesses they buy from to be more socially responsible and green. [More...]

Microsoft, Yahoo Game Going Into Extra Innings?

Tuesday - May 6, 2008

The collapse of this weekend's negotiations between Microsoft and Yahoo looked like game over. When the news first broke that Microsoft was walking away from its $44 billion bid, it seemed as though Redmond was the loser: It had tried a high-stakes, high-profile acquisition gambit and failed. [More...]

Will Investors Push Motorola to Speedier Split?

Monday - May 5, 2008

In the run-up to Motorola's 2008 annual shareholders meeting, vocal investor Carl Icahn threatened a proxy battle, sued the company, helped persuade executives to pursue a breakup, and won two seats on the board. Those events were just a prelude to the tough stockholder scrutiny Motorola will face in the year ahead as it tries to prepare its ailing cell phone division for independence. [More...]

A Tale of Two Steves

Monday - May 5, 2008

I'm writing this from the Microsoft Management Summit at Interop with 5,000 of my closest friends in Las Vegas, and I'm still thinking about the book I brought up recently, titled Inside Steve's Brain. The result is, I think I've had an epiphany -- and no, I didn't call a doctor. [More...]

Executive Compensation: Is It Too High?

Friday - May 2, 2008

The average compensation for an S&P 500 company's CEO was US$14.2 million in 2007, according to the AFL-CIO's 2007 Trends in CEO Pay survey. Some CEOs are even compensated multiple times that amount. This raises the question: When is executive compensation too high? One might also ask, are directors doing a disservice to a company and putting themselves at risk by approving unreasonable compensation? [More...]

Microsoft Board Gives Ballmer More Bite

Thursday - May 1, 2008

A closely watched meeting of the Microsoft board of directors has reportedly ended with CEO Steve Ballmer given the authorization -- and possibly the extra cash -- needed to do what it takes to get the Yahoo acquisition done or decide to drop it. Microsoft's board met Wednesday evening in Redmond, Wash. [More...]

New 3Com CEO to Call Shots From China

Wednesday - April 30, 2008

Edgar Masri was removed as chief executive of data network equipment maker 3Com on Tuesday and immediately replaced by Robert Mao, a fluent Mandarin speaker who will be based in China, which the Massachusetts-based company sees as its biggest market. The management shuffle also brings in Ronald Sege to the new position of chief operating officer and as president of the company, effective Wednesday. [More...]

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