Business

May 16, 2008

In brief

Icahn targets Yahoo

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is setting out to oust Yahoo Inc.’s board of directors for “irresponsible” and “unconscionable” actions that led Microsoft Corp. to withdraw a $47.5 billion offer to buy the slumping Internet pioneer.

In a letter sent Thursday to Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock, Icahn wrote that outraged Yahoo shareholders had urged him to lead a campaign to replace Yahoo’s 10 directors at the company’s July 3 annual meeting in hopes of bringing Microsoft back to the bargaining table.

To give him leverage in the looming battle, Icahn revealed that he has spent at least $1.3 billion snapping up about 59 million Yahoo shares to give him a roughly 4 percent stake in the company.

Pickens bets on wind

A renewable energy company founded by billionaire T. Boone Pickens says it’s buying 667 wind turbines from General Electric.

The longtime oilman’s company, Mesa Power, plans to use the turbines to start what it expects will be the world’s largest wind energy project, which will be located in Texas.

The turbines in the deal can each produce 1,000 megawatts of electricity. That makes the project’s first phase — one of four planned — able to make enough to power more than 300,000 average U.S. homes.

Pickens says the first phase of the Pampa Wind Project will cost about $2 billion, with power coming online by early 2011.

Cable leads DSL in hookups

Cable companies attracted more Internet subscribers than phone companies did in the first quarter, reversing a 3 1/2-year trend, according to a research report Thursday.

The 19 largest cable companies in the U.S. added 1.19 million broadband subscribers in the January-to-March period, according to a tally by Leichtman Research Group.

Phone companies added 1.01 million DSL customer in the same period, the report said.

Since the third quarter of 2004, phone companies had been adding subscribers faster than cable, closing in on cable’s lead in total subscribers. But that lead is now widening, with cable companies having a total of 34.7 million subscribers compared with 29.5 million at the phone companies.

Nissan sees sales drop

Dominique Thormann, senior vice president for administration and finance at Nissan North America, said Thursday that the company has lowered its industry forecast from 15.5 million vehicles to 15.2 million vehicles for its fiscal year, which began April 1 and will end March 31, 2009.

Some automakers, including General Motors Corp., have speculated that the current quarter will be the lowest point this year and the industry will rebound in the second half because of federal stimulus checks and lower interest rates. But Thormann said Nissan is predicting a depressed industry into 2009.

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