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Yahoo Stockholders Don’t Like Jerry Yang THAT Much

Capital Research Global Investors Crawford asked for a recount on Monday and – guess what! – the official tally was way wrong
By Maureen O'Gara
Article Rating:
August 6, 2008 09:15 AM EDT
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 1,683

Turns out the vote that overwhelmingly returned Yahoo’s board to office last Friday by a surprise three-to-one margin was seriously miscounted. The official tabulation claimed that CEO Jerry Yang got 85.4% of the vote (14.6% withheld) and Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock got 79.5% (20.5% withheld). By that count the pair that ran off Microsoft and its billions fared better than last year.

The numbers didn't add up to major stockholder Capital Research Global Investors, the Capital Research fund that owns 6.5% of Yahoo whose manager Gordon Crawford has been outspoken critic of the way Yahoo handled Microsoft.

It would have meant that only Capital Research Global Investors and its sister fund Capital World Investors, which controls 9.8% of Yahoo, voted against Yang and Bostock and under the circumstances that was plain unbelievable.

So Crawford asked for a recount on Monday and - guess what! - the official tally was way wrong.

Oh, the board's still in but Yang only got 66% of the votes, not a kissy-kissy 85.45, and Bostock only got 60%, down from 79.5% - not quite the bravura endorsement it seemed.

Broadridge Financial Solutions, the third-party responsible for the count, muttered something about a printout cutting off the first digit of the number of shares withheld, according to the Wall Street Journal. A "truncation error," they said.

Published August 6, 2008 – Reads 1,683
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Maureen O'Gara the most read technology reporter for the past 20 years, is the Cloud Computing and Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected technology reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025.

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