Could the new and improved Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang actually manage to beat back the proxy fight being waged against him by activist investor Carl Icahn?
It increasingly looks that way, with only 12 days to go until Yahoo’s annual meeting on Aug. 1.
But exactly which Yang will be running Yahoo (YHOO), if he does win, is probably the most important question shareholders need to ask.
Will it be the seemingly energetic Yang of the past two weeks, invigorated by the battle with Icahn and his new best friend and Yahoo foe, Microsoft (MSFT)?
Or will it be the other Yang?
Because for months and months now, since Microsoft waged its takeover bid on the Internet company he founded, the woe-is-me vibe emanating from Yang has been working the last nerve of anyone paying attention to the proceedings.
Given that this vibe was combined with a kind of cave dweller PR strategy of not speaking publicly–other than releasing an indignant, noncapitalized letter every now and then about the situation–some questioned Yang’s ability to gin up the kind of passion needed to bring Yahoo back from its current straits.
Even before the Microsoft parry in February, the ho-hum mood had trickled down to the troops, causing lower morale, too many departures and a general feeling–deserved or not–that Yahoo has been circling the drain for much too long under its current lackluster leadership.
And, let us not forget the drippy stock performance either.
And while BoomTown, especially, has to give both Yang and also Yahoo President Sue Decker much credit for appearing onstage at our sixth D: All Things Digital conference in May, most who saw the appearance (we posted the whole thing last week, starting here) were not blown away by the performance, considering it too enervated.
What then, do we make of the current round of pugnacious, dare-we-say, passionate, and, as it seems, pretty effective moves Yang has made this week to ward off the attacks of Icahn and Microsoft?
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