August 14th, 2008
Yahoo announces Icahn’s board members
Yahoo appointed former Viacom CEO Frank J. Biondi, Jr. and John H. Chapple, former CEO of Nextel Partners, to its board of directors, filling the two new seats created when activist investor Carl Icahn agreed to drop his proxy fight for control of the board last month. Icahn is also a new board member.
Frank Biondi has served as senior managing director of WaterView Advisors LLC, a private equity limited partnership focused on media and entertainment, since 1999. Chapple has served as president of Hawkeye Investments LLC, a privately-owned equity firm investing primarily in telecommunications and real estate ventures, since October 2006. Former AOL chief executive Jonathan Miller had reportedly been a favorite to take one of the seats but was blocked by a no-compete clause in his contract with AOL parent Time Warner.
“Frank’s extensive experience in the entertainment and media industries, combined with John’s deep management experience in telecommunications, will provide valuable perspectives to our already diverse board,” Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock said in a statement.
Sam Diaz is a senior editor at ZDNet. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
