Activist shareholder Carl Icahn has been cleared to purchase another $1.5bn (£764m) of shares in web giant Yahoo after US financial regulators completed their anti-trust review early.
The Federal Trade Commission included the deal in a list of transactions that had received "early termination" of anti-trust reviews - meaning it was granted approval before the 30-day deadline - on its website on Friday.
Icahn, who has already spent more than $1bn to buy a 4.3% stake in the company, now has permission to take his spending on Yahoo stock up to a total of $2.5bn.
The 72-year-old investor, who is pressing for a complete sale of Yahoo to Microsoft, is planning to lead a shareholder revolt against the board at the company's annual meeting next month.
Icahn is rallying disgruntled shareholders over the collapse of the possible merger with Microsoft and proposing to replace the nine incumbent Yahoo board members with his own nominees, including himself.
With tensions high, there could be a field of up to 30 people seeking seats at next month's AGM, including the existing board members and Icahn's candidates.
California-based Yahoo was due to hold its AGM on July 3 but has delayed it to later in the month as it seeks to quell the shareholder rebellion and continues talks with Microsoft about a possible alliance short of a merger.
· To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332.
· If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
 |  |
No comments:
Post a Comment