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Icahn to Yahoo!: Your Ass Is Mine

The Fourth of July has passed and now we’re stuck on a Monday with a big week ahead of us. However, nobody’s week will compare to that of Jerry Yang’s. Jerry is CEO and co-Founder of Yahoo!, a dying Internet company you probably use daily. Today, money-maker and powerhouse Carl Icahn issues a letter to Yahoo! shareholders telling them that the current board at Yahoo! must be ousted, including Yang. Why’s this? Icahn and Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer have been chatting about Yahoo! recently. Check out choice quotes from Icahn’s letter:

Much has been said about how badly the Yahoo! board has “botched up” negotiations with Microsoft over the past months. There is no need to keep pointing out the mistakes I believe Yahoo! made by not immediately taking a $33 offer made by Microsoft. But one thing is clear — Jerry Yang and the current board of Yahoo! will not be able to “botch up” a negotiation with Microsoft again, simply because they will not have the opportunity.

– If elected, I have little doubt that the new board, subject to its fiduciary duties, will do what the current board will not do, i.e.,

– Immediately start negotiation with Microsoft to sell the whole company or, in the alternative, sell “Search” with large guarantees.

– Move expeditiously to replace Jerry Yang with a new CEO with operating
experience.

Things are not looking good for Yahoo! or Yang. I give it six months before Microsoft is finished purchasing the company and replacing Yang with Icahn. Thoughts?

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LG threatens to sue copycats before launching SHINE

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Comparing to Nokia, LG is doing a far better job in handling illegal “replicas”. That is, they act before the replicas had the chance to become popular, before their own product starts selling, and most importantly before they have to hire a law firm. Across the Easter weekend LG has issued a warning letter to shops in Hong Kong warning them from carrying the SHINE clone (a clone from a mainland Chinese company), the shops were so freaked out and removed the stock so fast that we didn’t even have the chance to figure out what they’re called, how they looked like. If Nokia is Nokir, does that make LG Shine Shinier? –Sam Chan

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