What A Difference A Month Makes

A month ago, I sat down to record a message to Yahoo! shareholders. In it, I asked for your support to revise a "Plan B" to propose to Yahoo!'s Board and Management that would increase shareholder value for all.

Current and ex-Yahoo! employees, casual investors, widows, a few orphans, and several sophisticated institutional investors have responded. The pent-up frustration that Yahoo! underperforming the market for 2 years was not acceptable was finally uncorked.

We now collectively own $5MM worth of Yahoo! stock and we still believe -- as passionately as ever -- that better days lie ahead for one of the greatest companies in the world.

We're also all happy that, since our activism began one month ago, Yahoo!'s stock price is up 5.8% compared to the NASDAQ being up only 1.53% and Google being down 3.22%.

Congrats to the men and women of Yahoo! who have worked tirelessly to bring Panama onstream. You guys are the stars. However, I want to thank the "Plan B" community and say that our grassroots/netroots efforts have shone a light on problems at Yahoo! which still need to be addressed. In activist investing, sunlight is truly the best disinfectant.

One thing I've learned from this effort so far is that the best ideas trump all at the end of the day. You can have money and power, but, if you don't have the best ideas, it's difficult to refute others who do.

The best ideas for Yahoo! haven't come from me, but from our community. And that is the power that blogging/community tools/wikis gives us.

Keep up the fight for "Plan B." Our work is just starting. Keep signing up.

It's satisfying to know that the results so far are worth the effort.

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