According to the media reports of searchenginejournal on July 17, Jerry Yang, the current CEO of Yahoo! sent an email to the shareholders of Yahoo!, stating that Yahoo! would agree to be sold to Microsoft at a price of $33 per share, and this deal that had been delayed for nearly half a year would finally come to an end.
The content of this email was roughly as follows:
Due to the establishment of the Icahn-Microsoft alliance recently, there has been some misleading information regarding the acquisition of Yahoo! by Microsoft. The board strongly believes that the agenda discussed between Ican and Microsoft last week undervalues the interests of Yahoo!'s shareholders. The scope of interests considered by Icahn is relatively narrow.
Under the current situation, in order to maximize the benefits for the shareholders of Yahoo!, he suggests that the company must take the following steps:
Firstly, we must continue to lead in online advertising business through our strategies and plans, including leading in search and display businesses. Secondly, we will prepare to implement the commercial agreement we recently signed with Google to increase cash flow;
Continue to explore other ways to create value for the company, and still consider negotiation as a way to increase the efficiency of the company, including with Microsoft;
In contrast, allowing Carl Icahn, the examiner, to participate in the company's business in the short term, he analyzed that because Icahn owns a certain amount of shares in Yahoo!, his goal is to sell all or part of Yahoo! to Microsoft to reduce his own losses. Based on this fact, plus his lack of experience in running Internet companies and insufficient understanding of Yahoo!, this means that he plays no lever role in the negotiations with Microsoft. Therefore, Yahoo! shareholders cannot trust Icahn to complete this transaction;
After comparing the entire process of previous negotiations and conducting a thorough analysis, the management and board of directors should have a clear understanding of their current position. For this reason, Jerry Yang proposed three options.
First, if Microsoft agrees, we will sell the entire company to Microsoft at a price of $33 per share. He suggested that this is the simplest way to ensure your interests;
Second, the company still only sells its search business to Microsoft, provided that Microsoft can provide actual value to the shareholders of Yahoo! and solve the large number of operational and business-related risks faced by the company after separating its search and display businesses;
Third, our shareholders will conscientiously perform their own duties and continue to adopt an active research approach;
These are the several choices facing the shareholders of Yahoo!. He also suggested that the shareholders of Yahoo! should base their decisions on the actual situation, carefully compare the current position of the company, and ultimately decide which option to take, with the aim of bringing better benefits to the company and shareholders. And reminded the shareholders not to be influenced by Icahn's strategy.