Microsoft Suspicious About Yahoo! Vote Count Error

Someone at Microsoft is talking to NyPo and reporting that Microsoft is very suspicious about the Yahoo! vote count error that gave CEO a much larger vote count than he should have received:

...several people close to the Microsoft camp questioned whether Yahoo! may have intentionally rushed to certify the more favorable results and suggested there might have been a conspiracy to skew the vote.

Yahoo! denies it had anything to do with how the votes were counted and sources close to the company claim there was no reason to question the original results because Yahoo!'s largest shareholder, Capital Research and Management, owns its shares through several different funds, which often split their votes in contested elections.

But that didn't stop Microsoft from questioning Yahoo!'s motives behind the scenes.

"There is a consistent pattern of questionable activity that Yahoo! has engaged in and I think it shows why Steve Ballmer decided to walk away from the deal," said one Microsoft source. "At the end of the day, he felt he couldn't trust these guys."

Yahoo Vote Count Readjusted Big Time

File under interesting.

A recalculation of the Yahoo shareholder vote reveals Chief Executive Jerry Yang received just 66.3% of the vote for re-election -- not the 85% originally reported.

The changes made Tuesday revealed that 200 million votes opposing the re-election of Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang, Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and another director, Ron Burkle, were improperly registered as supportive at the company's annual meeting last week.

Convinced that its opposition to Yahoo's board wasn't reflected in last week's vote, Capital Research demanded an audit from Broadridge Financial Solutions, the processing firm responsible for casting the ballots for a wide range of institutional investors.

Broadridge acknowledged Tuesday that a printing mix-up caused it to understate the number of shares that intended to vote against Yahoo directors. The firm didn't elaborate on how many shareholders besides Capital Research were affected.

Major Yahoo Shareholder Wants Vote Probe

Capital Research Global Investors, run by portfolio manager Gordon Crawford, said today that it has asked for a probe of last week's shareholder vote which showed strong support for Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang.

Yang received 85 percent support in the results announced on Friday.

Well that's one way to get rid of Yang, catch him in vote fraud.

In New Attack Ad, McCain Blames Obama For Higher Gas Prices

In a new McCain attack ad, Barack Obama is blamed for higher gas prices. LOL

The theory is that the lack of new drilling in the United States is behind the climb in gas prices. Obama has voted against off shore drilling. Certainly, if more oil was produced in the United States, the additional supply would put more downward pressure on oil prices. But as long as you have Ben in his helicopter increasing the money supply, oil prices are going to go up and up.


Here's the new ad, get a load of the "Obama, Obama" chant.

Does Steve Ballmer Have A Diabolical Plan?

So maybe Steve Ballmer isn't an idiot after all.

A fascinating NyPo story has Ballmer playing Icahn, so that Icahn plays Yahoo!. Since Icahn doesn't really have a clue, according to NyPo, about the internet, Ballmer is instigating Icahn to make bids he knows that Yahoo! will reject. Hmmm, so that's where that idea of making Yang "Chief Yahoo!" came from.

The ultimate plan is Ballmer using Icahn to destroy Yahoo! or to drive the stock price down, so that he can buy it on the cheap.

On the other hand, the story has a decided, Yahoo! spin to it. Maybe it's Yahoo! playing NyPo reporters?