Yahoo! announced the appointment of three new independent board members from 05 April. These are John D. Hayes, chief marketing officer of American Express; Peter Liguori, former COO of Discovery Communications and former president of entertainment at Fox Broadcasting Network; and Thomas J. McInerney, the outgoing CFO of IAC/InterActiveCorp. The new appointments come as four board members will step down at the AGM this year. The nominating committee and a professional search firm looked at a number of candidates for the positions, Yahoo! said. It rejected most of the proposed candidates from shareholder Third Point, but agreed to propose Harry Wilson and a second individual mutually acceptable to both Third Point and Yahoo! to the board. Third Point earlier announced its intention start a proxy battle, taking its own slate of directors directly to shareholders for a vote at the AGM, as part of efforts to force a change in strategy at the internet company. Third Point founder and CEO Daniel Loeb rejected Yahoo!'s new proposal and said the company would not withdraw its four candidates unless he personally was appointed to the board. Yahoo! said the board found that other candidates were more qualified for the position and appointing Loeb to the board was not in the best interest of the company and its shareholders. After the AGM this year, if all the company's appointments are accepted, Yahoo!'s entire board will be appointed after January 2010.
