Y! Annual Meeting: Venting but No Real Big Changes

Following on from AdViking’s attempt to liveblog the meeting earlier, some quick round up points.

About Microsoft:

The board went over the top in trying to defend themselves and I believe that this comment from one small investor really is all that has to be said:

“You’ve got a situation where it sounds like the girlfriend in a breakup now trying to convince the world she was the initiator, not the victim,” he said. Microsoft looks like the “strong, silent type,” and Yahoo looks “weak.”

The Board

There was some fireworks from the audience but the vote went ahead smoothly and other than the Ichann change and the ex-AOL honcho Jon Miller on/off switch, everyone still has their seats.

Y! Update

In a microblog nutshell:

We had a great strategy.  MS bid made us focus on something else  Still, we have traffic, the Internet is great it’s just our tech isn’t so hot & we have loads of talent (ignoring the fact of the recent exodus).

Here’s link to the deck they gave.  Not that interesting in itself but some good points to pull out for industry trends.

All in all, AdViking now regrets earlier excitement and agree with his wife about being a geek…

Livebloggen: Yahoo! Annual General Meeting 2008

Well, AdViking doesn’t have the budget to attend the Yahoo! Annual General Meeting but that doesn’t stop us from trying to follow the action from the comfort of living rooms with beers in hands…

Actually that sounds better than attending.

17:48

Early build up coverage doesn’t have must to say, but Kara Swisher has confirmed the pastries are looking good…

Here’s some promising links to follow the coverage so far:

• The Times of London
• AllThingsDigital
• Mercury News
• PaidContent
• CNet
• The official webcast

18:22

The Mercury News link above is providing live transcript.

There’s 5 Shareholder Proposals.

Most interesting is that exec pay is out of whack.

Funniest, but totally not is about Yahoo! issues with human rights.  One guy re-quotes something about Y! mgmt being “moral pygmies” – Response being that quote is an insult to pygamies and the because of the issues in China, that Jerry Yang should enjoy his visit to the Olympics.

18:30

Some peanut gallery comments about the Plumbers Union who wanted the pay review.

Y! opposes Human Rights, Pay Review and Censorship Review Shareholder Proposals.

18:44

As Ballmer would say, blah blah blah…whatever guys.  You had this amazing strategy and Microsoft got in your head and you did a deal with Google that will kill your business.

Updated link:  CNET

18:56

Yang giving the update…we’re in transition, etc.  we got a lot of assets, can make money, etc…trust us…but dude what about Google…dude what about all the real smart people who just walked out the door

19:19

Enough of the updates, let’s get to the questions…or should I say fireworks

20:01

The Q&A is great…living up to the hype…

20:41

On reflection, it didn’t really….some great quotes and some interesting Shareholder Proposals but nothing really that persuasive from the Y! board as to why they should keep their jobs.

AdViking will have a ponder and come back with a summary.