Yahoo Nominates One Of Its Co-Founders, A Stock Guru, And A Former Walmart CEO To Its Board

Call it Yahoo’s version of the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker. The venerable Internet firm today announced a trio of nominations to its board that could round out the sort of folks keeping tabs on its focus. Most interesting among the nominations is David Filo, a Yahoo co-founder.

Joining Filo in the ranks of the nominated are Charles Schwab, chairman of eponymous financial firm Charles Schwab, and H. Lee Scott, Jr., who was once the CEO of Walmart. An interesting crew.

Filo is sensical given his history with the company, and makes especial sense as Yahoo looks to return to its portal and search roots. Schwab’s accolades by Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer in the company’s release were somewhat vague: “Chuck brings a wealth of experience to the board, having built a well-respected brand and having grown a successful business from the ground up.”

Scott is praised by Mayer for his “operational excellence.” The nominations will be voted on June 25, 2014, during the company’s annual meeting. Statements from the selected make the trio appear confident in their accession. Given Mayer’s support, I doubt they are suffering from acute hubris.

Yahoo had a good quarterly report, managing to grow a key revenue metric year-over-year. Investors, content with that and enthused about the upcoming Alibaba IPO — Yahoo owns a significant share of that firm — sent its shares higher. Given current general investor contentment, the chance that Mayer doesn’t get the appointees she wants feels slim.