'Power' table at Sun Valley raises Yahoo questions
updated 04:30 pm EDT, Thu July 10, 2008
Rumors fly at Sun Valley
More questions were brought up about the sale of Yahoo at the Sun Valley conference being held this week in Idaho, says the New York Times. A table in a bar filled with the likes of Google co-founder Larry Page, Yahoo President Sue Decker, Legg Mason Capital Management's Bill Miller -- who is one of Yahoo's largest shareholders -- and former Yahoo chief Terry Semel has the media, investors and analysts speculating about the type of conversation taking place.
While nothing specific was overheard, the report claims Page and Miller were leading the conversation, with Decker and Semel occasionally contributing. Some of the bar's other high-profile patrons mentioned in the report included Sergey Brin, Google's other co-founder, as well as James B. Lee of JPMorgan Chase, none of whom joined the conversation at the 'power' table.
The latest hard news regarding the sale of Yahoo, back in May, had Microsoft offering $33 per share to buy out Yahoo, for a total of $47.5 billion. Since then, talks between the two companies have broken off, although Microsoft could again be involved if investor Carl Icahn is successful in replacing Yahoo's board.
Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, who was yesterday rumored to resign from the company, is also due to attend the conference as early as today.
