Yahoo tells staff to stay focused

SUNNYVALE, USA: Yahoo Inc on Monday asked its employees to stay focused on what it does the best: "transforming the experiences of our users, advertisers, publishers and developers."

In an e-mail sent to Yahoo employees worldwide, Jerry Yang, CEO of Sunnyvale-based Yahoo, referred to the joint proposal made by Microsoft and investor Carl C. Icahn, and said: "I know this (the proposal) could is [sic] distracting at the very least. But I know that we can count on all of you to continue to focus on what we do best."

Yang said that the proposal would hand over to Microsoft Yahoo's search business and the rest of the business to Icahn. "Our board rejected this for a number of reasons that boil down to a determination that this deal would be disadvantageous to Yahoo stockholders."

He warned that the "proposals and attacks" by Microsoft and Icahn is likely to make the August 1 board meeting contentious.

Icahn has been waging a battle to install a new board of directors, which he claimed would prompt Microsoft to initiate a new round of talks to acquire Yahoo. In a communication to Yahoo shareholders on Monday, Icahn said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is not open to talking with the current board.

Yang further stated, "Yahoo remains committed to being a principal in algorithmic and paid search and believes that the financial benefits of our announced agreement with Google will allow Yahoo to advance its ability to compete in the convergence of display and search advertising by allowing us to accelerate investment in sponsored search, display and web search businesses in parallel."