With the appointment of Frank Biondi, Jr. and John Chapple to Yahoo’s board of directors today, the last two slots on the board are now filled. Biondi, the former CEO of Viacom, and Chapple, the former CEO of Nextel, were both on Carl Icahn’s original alternate slate when he was still trying to replace the entire board. As part of his compromise with Yahoo, Icahn backed down from his proxy battle in return for three seats on the board.
After Icahn took his board seat following Yahoo’s shareholder meeting, the only question left was who would take the other two seats. One of them was initially reserved for former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller, until Time Warner pulled it out from under him. So the rest of Yahoo’s board chose Biondi and Chapple as the two least objectionable of Icahn’s henchmen. You really didn’t think they were going to vote for Mark Cuban, did you? Although, that would have been much more entertaining.
Now Icahn, Biondi, and Chapple (The Icahn Three?) can vote as a block, although they won’t be able to block anything outright on the 11-member board. But they are not there to block anything really. They are there to approve and encourage another deal that results in the sale of Yahoo.