Home Phone and Internet $60/moYahoo tries to conceal lawsuit documents
Yahoo and shareholders suing the company don't see eye to eye about how public some documents involved in the case should be.
The documents involve details of a severance plan Yahoo adopted after Microsoft launched its attempt to acquire the Internet company in February. Yahoo wants to keep the documents redacted, but Joel Friedlander, the attorney representing the shareholders, accused Yahoo of trying "to whitewash embarrassing documents" so they couldn't be used to undermine its effort to fend off activist investor Carl Icahn's attempt to oust Yahoo's board, according to The Associated Press.
Also included in the documents are notes from a conversation between Jerry Yang and Steve Ballmer, the respective chief executives of Yahoo and Microsoft, and of comments top executives made about the severance plan, the AP said. The information was gathered during the discovery phase of the lawsuit.
A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday on the matter for the Delaware case.
The severance plan was one sticking point in discussions between Yahoo and Microsoft, a source familiar with the negotiations said.
Stephen Shankland covers Google, Yahoo, search, online advertising, portals, digital photography, and related subjects. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered servers, supercomputing, open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen.
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My guess is that he's acting as a proxy for Balmer. MS really didn't get the positive public opinion when it suggested the merger. If they were to fight Yang directly, it might look even worse for MS, so why not use a proxy? Have the proxy force Yahoo to run after MS for a settlement, that way it looks better for MS. Desired rather than hostile suitor.