Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft (MSFT), thinks the current board at Yahoo! (YHOO) are buffoons and wants them out before he negotiates to buy all or part of the company. That is according to a letter Carl Icahn sent to Yahoo! shareholders.
Ballmer’s concern is that between committing to a contract to buy the company and the date of closing, which he reckons could be nine months, the current board and management could do a great deal of damage to the portal firm. Icahn’s letter puts it this way: "During that period, if the current board and management team of Yahoo! mismanage the company (and their recent track record is far from reassuring), Microsoft would be putting its money at risk and a great deal could be lost."
Ballmer may simply be using Icahn as a tool. Pushing Yahoo! management and its board out may do much more to damage to the company than the status quo. It would take a new "team" several quarters to make any meaningful changes at Yahoo!. While new management learned its way around, the company would be rudderless.
Microsoft is now working on getting Yahoo! cheap, and Icahn may be the best tool to accomplish that.
It’s Ballmer inside that Trojan Horse
Douglas A. McIntyre