Saturday, July 19, 2008

Yahoo proxy may come down to battle of big funds

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - It looks like the bar room tete-a-tete in Sun Valley, Idaho last week may have helped one of Yahoo Inc.'s biggest institutional shareholders make up his mind.
Friday's news from Bill Miller, chairman and chief investment officer of Legg Mason, that he intends to support Yahoo (YHOO:
Yahoo! Inc
Last: 22.45+0.01+0.04%
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YHOO 22.45, +0.01, +0.0%) management in its proxy fight with activist investor Carl Icahn was a big coup for embattled Jerry Yang & Co. See full story.
It was also a possible endorsement of the persuasive powers of Yahoo president Sue Decker, who was spotted last week at a table in the back of a bar conversing with Miller, Larry Page, co-founder of Google Inc. (GOOG:
google inc cl a
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GOOG 481.32, -52.12, -9.8%) and oddly enough, former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, at the media mogul fest in Sun Valley.
Now that Miller has indicated which way he is voting Legg Mason's 4.4% stake in Yahoo, all eyes will be on other institutions with large holdings in the Internet portal. Perhaps one of the most influential is Gordon Crawford, a portfolio manager at Capital Research Global Investors. Its parent company, Capital Group Cos. has at least three funds with a combined stake of nearly 17% in Yahoo, making it the largest institutional holder. Capital's funds also own a combined stake of nearly 6% in Microsoft (MSFT:
Microsoft Corporation
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MSFT 25.86, -1.62, -5.9%) , Yahoo's spurned suitor.
A Capital spokesman declined to comment on how the funds plan to vote their shares on Friday. But it is worth noting that in May, during Microsoft's attempt to buy Yahoo, Crawford has made some unusually sharp statements, saying he was "extremely disappointed in Jerry Yang." While Crawford's fund also owns Microsoft, Miller's fund does not.
Some pundits have speculated large institutional shareholders do not typically lead activist campaigns. But Miller coming out with a statement in support of Yahoo management two weeks ahead of the much-anticipated shareholder meeting scheduled for August 1 could inspire other funds to try and persuade other investors to take their side. See full story.
Two other interesting players to watch will be the institutional shareholder advisory firms, such as RiskMetrics and Glass Lewis, which make recommendations to institutions.
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