Yahoo To Name Biondi, Chapple To Board By Friday: Reuters

Reuters is reporting that Yahoo will name former Viacom CEO Frank Biondi and former Nextel Partners CEO John Chapple to the board by the end of the week. As part of the deal struck with activist investor Carl Ichan, Yahoo agreed to appoint 2 new board members from a list of proposed Icahn nominees. Biondi and Chapple were both on that list. Icahn has been critical of Yahoo management, calling for a complete overhaul of the board. The company has already warned of slowing sales for the remainder of the year and should that play out, it will be interesting to see how closely Biondi and Chapple align with Icahn after the Q3 report in mid-October. In light of the recent disappointment in management reflected in the shareholder recount, if the trio bands together things could get tough for CEO Yang.  Watch to see if Ichan, Biondi and Chapple move quickly to eliminate the “poison pill” payouts the board adopted in the Spring.  With this obstacle out of the way, merger talks with Microsoft may be rekindled.