Yahoo! Inc. YHOO
Yahoo's board has failed for years on operations, capital allocation, and governance; replace it with Starboard's nine nominees to run a credible Core Business sale and unlock value.
Thesis
Starboard, owner of roughly 1.7% (~$570 million) of Yahoo, argues the company is deeply undervalued because of a board that has tolerated dismal execution for years: Core Business Adjusted EBITDA fell 47% year-over-year (from $186m in Q3 2014 to $99m in Q3 2015) despite management's promise of growth, and Yahoo has squandered over $2.3bn on acquisitions since 2012, writing down $1.2bn of them. After eighteen months of being rebuffed, Starboard concludes the same directors cannot credibly oversee the strategic review of the Core Business or the fate of the Alibaba and Yahoo Japan stakes, citing reports that bidders like Verizon have been starved of diligence information. Starboard therefore nominates a full slate of nine highly qualified directors for election at the 2016 Annual Meeting.
SCQA
Yahoo is a large-cap internet company whose value is dominated by a struggling Core Business in Search and Display plus minority equity stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, now under a publicly announced strategic review.
The incumbent board has presided over a 47% YoY EBITDA collapse, $1.2bn of acquisition write-downs, and is running a slow, conflict-ridden sale process that is alienating serious bidders like Verizon.
Elect Starboard's full slate of nine independent, highly qualified director nominees at the 2016 Annual Meeting to oversee a credible sale of the Core Business and any separation or turnaround.
A refreshed board would restore credibility with strategic and financial bidders, enable a full and fair sale process, and unlock the significant value Starboard believes is trapped beneath failed leadership.
The three reasons
- 1
Core Business EBITDA fell 47% YoY despite management's guidance it would grow
- 2
Yahoo wasted $2.3bn on acquisitions since 2012 and wrote down $1.2bn of them
- 3
Board has rebuffed Starboard for 18 months and is mishandling the Core Business sale
Primary demands
- Replace the current Yahoo board by electing Starboard's slate of nine nominees at the 2016 Annual Meeting
- Ensure a credible, conflict-free strategic review and sale process for the Core Business
- Hold management accountable for failed execution, wasteful acquisitions, and poor governance
- Properly oversee any operational turnaround, separation, or sale of assets including Alibaba and Yahoo Japan stakes
KPIs cited
Pattern membership
Where this document fits across the library's 12 rhetorical / structural patterns.
Notable slides (3)
Notes
Plain shareholder letter on Starboard letterhead announcing a proxy fight at Yahoo. The CEO-quote-contradiction flag is set because the letter quotes Verizon CFO Francis Shammo (Deutsche Bank conf., March 8 2016) and a CTFN banker to contradict Yahoo's portrayal of the sale process — an indirect but explicit use of third-party quotes to expose inconsistency with management's narrative. No SOP tables, no peer-gap charts, no valuation math in this document; this is the rallying-cry letter, with substantive analysis presumably reserved for follow-on decks. Pages 4-7 are director bios (Baker, Braham, Buss, Conn, Fuller, Hartenstein, Hill, Janssen, Smith).