Yahoo board finalised

Icahn gets his men

15 August 2008 13:17 GMT / By Katie Scott

Part of the deal that Yahoo made with billionaire investor, and once rebel shareholder, was that he could nominate three of his pals to the Yahoo board.

One dropped out but the two remaining businessmen have now been named and brought into the Yahoo board.

They are former Viacom and Universal Studios chief Frank Biondi and former Nextel Partners boss John Chapple.

Yahoo has now managed to placate Icahn who was not only a very vocal supporter of the proposed sale of Yahoo's search business to Microsoft, but also condemned Yahoo's management when talks with the computing giant broke down.

Icahn was offered three seats on the Yahoo board in order to stop him launching a proxy vote to oust the present Yahoo board including Yahoo co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang.

Of the new recruits, Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock said: "Frank's extensive experience in the entertainment and media industries, combined with John's deep management experience in telecommunications, will provide valuable perspectives to our already diverse board".

"We look forward to working with them as our board continues its ongoing efforts to enhance stockholder value."