• August 4, 2008

Yahoo's incumbent board members were re-elected Friday without strong resistance at the Web portal's annual meeting as shareholders expressed little outrage over the company's rejection of a $47.5 million takeover bid by Microsoft.

Much of the expected tension surrounding the meeting evaporated when activist shareholder Carl Icahn reached a settlement with Yahoo last month, ending his campaign to oust the company board of directors over its failure to clinch the Microsoft deal. As part of the agreement, he will join the board with two other Icahn-backed candidates.

Former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller, who had been expected to fill one of the open seats, however, was blocked from doing so by AOL parent Time Warner as part of a non-compete agreement. Yahoo plans to fill the two remaining board seats by Aug. 15.

Only two of Yahoo's existing nine board members--Chairman Roy Bostock and Arthur Kern--were opposed on ballots representing more than 20% of shareholders. Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang was opposed by only 14.6%, despite predictions voting against the company's current leaders might run higher. Last year, three Yahoo directors were opposed by more than 30% of the vote.--Mark Walsh