Van Natta a Good Hire for News Corp's MySpace

The two co-founders of MySpace, Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, have stepped aside or been pushed out by News Corp's (NWS) Rupert Murdoch and new digital boss Jonathan Miller.

Kara Swisher is reporting that former Facebook No. 2 Owen Van Natta will get the top job.
It's a good move for NWS. After buying MySpace for $500 million, and hearing cat-calls from critics, Murdoch's purchase was soon viewed as one of the biggest steals of the decade, given the social networking site's early explosive growth. Soon, MySpace signed a $900 million advertising deal with Google (GOOG), which essentially paid NWS back for the entire purchase and then some.

Yet, the GOOG deal is coming to a close, and there's little chance of renewal at similar terms. MySpace, despite huge traffic, has stalled in terms of its growth relative to Facebook and Twitter. It's no longer the shiny new toy it once was.


Van Natta is a well-respected exec who has worked closely with Jeff Bezos (his former boss) and Steve Ballmer (with whom he worked on partnership deals when he was the No. 2 at Facebook). On paper, he's the right guy with the right experience to lead MySpace now (and hopefully stick it to his former boss, Mark Zuckerberg).

MySpace may be a laggard in the social networking space, but its size and user base could still be turned around to the benefit of the NWS mothership again.

Originally published in RealMoney.com on 4/23/2009 7:53 AM EDT

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Wall Street Journal: Yahoo Shareholders Endorse Board

Criticism Is Sparse Over Microsoft Bid At Annual Meeting

By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO
August 2, 2008; Page B6

Yahoo Inc. faced little criticism at its annual meeting over the issue that had been expected to be center stage: its rejection of multiple deal offers from Microsoft Corp.

Shareholders overwhelmingly endorsed the board, with Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock receiving a 79.5% favorable vote, up from roughly two-thirds last year. Some 85.4% of votes were cast in support of Chief Executive Jerry Yang, down from more than 90% last year but still a strong endorsement for a leader who has faced calls for his resignation.

The results suggest that investors who have been harping about the company's handling of Microsoft negotiations are moving on -- or have decided to sell their stock. Yahoo shares have fallen roughly 30% from when Microsoft withdrew its $47.5 billion, $33-a-share offer, to acquire the company in May. Friday, the company's stock traded relatively flat and was at $19.80 in 4 p.m. composite trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

The meeting, in San Jose, Calif., was a tame follow to a bitter battle. Investor Carl Icahn, who settled his proxy fight for the company last month, didn't attend the two-hour meeting. Under the settlement, Mr. Icahn and two other directors will join Yahoo's board.

While Mr. Bostock addressed months of negotiations with Microsoft in detail, investors didn't dwell on the topic, besides a few brief or passing remarks. Shareholders instead pressed management on human-rights issues, executive compensation and its strategy against Google Inc.

Several investors interviewed at the meeting said they still are holding out for Microsoft to make another offer to buy Yahoo's search business, and they think a move is fairly likely in the coming months. That sentiment could be keeping up Yahoo shares to some degree.

Eric Jackson, a small Yahoo shareholder representing a group of shareholders who own 3.2 million shares, has been critical of Yahoo's handling of the bid but raised the issue only briefly, saying to Mr. Bostock: "You overplayed your hand...and overstayed your welcome."

Mr. Bostock responded by saying that Mr. Jackson was mischaracterizing the facts. Mr. Bostock kicked off the meeting by reviewing the months of "twists and turns" between Microsoft's Jan. 31 bid and its truce with Mr. Icahn last month. At every step of the way, he said, Yahoo's board sought to increase shareholder value.

"There was never a compelling offer put on the table," he said, adding he still doesn't know why Microsoft withdrew its original offer.

In a statement, Microsoft said, "Yahoo is attempting to rewrite history yet again with statements that are not supported by the facts."

Mr. Bostock cracked several jokes about the long hours spent on the deal, noting he would be happy to share a time sheet of all the hours he logged on it. He said he has been working "26 hours in a 24-hour day."

Mr. Yang, who has been waging a battle to keep his job, walked through the company's plan to expand by building new products, including a new platform that makes it easier to buy advertising online. The company also has realigned its advertising business, he said, and has succeeded at implementing a more technologically savvy leadership team.

"This is a company we are very excited and determined to transform," he said. "There is no other company on the Internet that has this collection of assets."

The meeting didn't address who will join the board along with Mr. Icahn. The new members are to be selected by Aug. 15. While there had been some speculation that Yahoo was likely to select Jonathan Miller, the former chief executive of AOL, as one of the board members, Time Warner Inc., AOL's owner, said Friday that Mr. Miller had agreed not to work for Yahoo as part of his noncompete agreement with Time Warner.

Write to Jessica E. Vascellaro at jessica.vascellaro@wsj.com

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Yahoo! Investors: Make Your Voices Heard

Friday's Yahoo! annual meeting for its shareholders will be an opportunity for us to speak up and make our voices heard.

If you're in the Bay Area, I encourage you to come out to the meeting at the Fairmont San Jose on Friday at 10am local time. (I will be traveling from the east coast to attend the meeting and know that several others are coming from long distances as well. Hopefully, we'll have a lively set of questions posed to the Yahoo! board in a true direct fashion since the titanic negotiations with Microsoft and also since Jerry Yang took over after last year's annual meeting.)

As I have said previously, I am "withholding" my votes for Roy Bostock, Ron Burkle, Art Kern, and Eric Hippeau. If more than 50% of my fellow shareholders do the same, those 4 men will have to submit their resignations (although Yahoo! could technically decline to accept them -- which would be highly unlikely because of the optics). I expect a Yahoo! board to be a better one without them than with them (although Yahoo! would be granted the right to select their successors -- hopefully only after much discussion with existing shareholders).

This morning, there was a story that at least one large YHOO shareholder was going to also vote "against" Jerry Yang. I can understand this sentiment. On a day when Yahoo! closed just shy of the ignominious price of $19, shareholders are understandably upset that CEO Yang couldn't close a deal to get 62% more than that a few weeks ago. In my opinion, Yang deserves a high "against" vote, but I hope he doesn't achieve the 50% mark because -- despite his failings this past year as CEO -- the company is better off with him on the board than without (in my opinion).

What about the Icahn nominees to the board?

We still don't know who 2 of these 3 people will be. The Yahoo! shareholders should have had the opportunity to vote on these nominees at this year's meeting. Instead, we'll have to wait a full year to vote.

However, this injustice is actually an opportunity. I hope that Yahoo! shareholders (large and small) will speak up in these last few days before Friday's meeting (and at Friday's meeting during the Q&A session) about their preferences for who should fill those slots.

Before the Yang-Icahn detente was struck, I had advocated a compromise solution in which I threw my support behind the election of John Chapple, Edward Meyer, Adam Dell, and Lucian Bebchuk. As part of the Icahn agreement, Carl himself will fill one of the 3 slots. Two are left open.

Jonathan Miller is rumored to be under consideration for one of those slots. He is an excellent choice and I would support him. Yet, he's still not thrown his hat in the ring.

If he passes on the chance to try and sort out this dysfunctional board from the inside, I would hope to see Chapple and Bebchuk elected.

Chapple (as Kara Swisher has said) has big business experience and wireless experience -- maybe he can sort out Yahoo! GO and help the company be successful in the perpetually burgeoning mobile wireless space. He also certainly knows how to sell out at the top. We'll see if he can help Yahoo! sell out when it's been round-tripped back to $19.

I also like Bebchuk and said so very early on. He's one of the best regarded academics on the issue of misaligned executive compensation and corporate performance. If you're going to try and cure Yahoo! of this affliction, why not send in the corporate equivalent of Doctors Without Borders?

We shouldn't be sitting back as shareholders waiting for Yahoo! to tell us who they -- in their infinite $19/share wisdom -- have deigned to select. Let's speak up and state who should be governing our company.

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