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SANTA CLARA - A strong minority of Yahoo! shareholders challenged the web company's direction yesterday by voting against board-nominated directors at the annual meeting, and investors confronted chief executive Terry Semel.
Nearly a third of votes for at least one board member were cast against his election, an unusually high protest, even though all 10 candidates were elected. Proposals opposed by the board that aimed to tie executive pay to competitive performance and challenge the company's human rights policies in China were defeated.
Eric Jackson, who said he represented a group of current and former Yahoo! employees that own 2.1 million shares, said presentations by senior company officials failed to give specifics on how Yahoo! could jump-start growth.
"I am surprised that you didn't apologise for the last three years of performance," Jackson said during a question-and-answer session that followed the formal meeting, directing his comments at Yahoo! chairman and chief executive Terry Semel.
Last year Yahoo! shares tumbled by about 38 per cent.
After a false start this year, they are trading back at US$27.05, up just 6 per cent from the end of 2006.
In February, Jackson called for Semel and Yahoo!'s board to be fired and for strategic changes to be made to compete with Google.
- REUTERS
