Vote Count Controversy: Yahoo Shareholder Wants Recount

At last Friday’s annual Yahoo shareholder meeting, the Yahoo slate of directors was re-elected, with CEO Jerry Yang and Chariman Roy Bostock receiving 15 percent and 20 percent “no” votes. AllThingsD points out these numbers are actually better than last year in the absence of the MicroHoo controversy and proxy contest. Yahoo Director Robert A. Kotick, who was re-elected, is resigning to make way for Carl Icahn.

Capital Research Global Investors, which owns 6.5 percent of Yahoo, is asking for a recount, chiefly as an expression of its frustration and anger with Yang and Bostock. Any recount, which could potentially reflect a greater percentage of “no” votes, is not going to alter the outcome, so the effort is purely symbolic and an attempt to express dissatisfaction publicly.

Postscript: AllThingsD reports that the outside accounting firm that did the vote tabulation did in fact under-count or under-report the “no” or negative votes expressing disappointment or frustration toward the existing directors. The “no” votes regarding Jerry Yang apparently doubled in this retabulation.