SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Yahoo Inc. is in the process of approving the appointments of former Viacom Inc. CEO Frank Biondi and former Nextel Partners CEO John Chapple to its board and is expected to name the appointees by Friday, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
The appointments are not yet final but likely, the source said.
Yahoo settled its proxy battle with Carl Icahn just days before its August 1 shareholder meeting, at which the activist investor had originally sought to replace the entire board with his nominees and oust Chief Executive Jerry Yang.
As part of the deal, Yahoo agreed to appoint Icahn to its nine-member board and add two new directors from Icahn’s list of nominees, which included Biondi and Chapple, by mid-August.
Biondi, who runs an investment adviser firm, is the former chief executive of Universal Studios and Viacom. Chapple was the chief executive of Nextel Partners before it was bought by Sprint Nextel Corp.
Yahoo also considered Jonathan Miller, former chief executive of Time Warner Inc.’s AOL business, although he was not on Icahn’s list. But Time Warner stepped in earlier this month to bar Miller from joining Yahoo, saying the conglomerate would enforce a non-compete pact with him.
A Yahoo official declined to comment.
(Editing by Mark Porter and Gary Hill)
Copyright Reuters 2008. All rights reserved. Users may download and print extracts of content from this website for their own personal and non-commercial use only. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
