Yahoo is facing seven shareholder lawsuits alleging the slumping internet pioneer bungled its response to Microsoft's unsolicited takeover bid, an Associated Press report said.
The company provided a breakdown of the suits in an annual report with the Securities and Exchange, the report said.
The documents didn't provide any new information about Yahoo's attempts to shoo away Microsoft, which is threatening to pursue a hostile takeover unless a friendly deal can be negotiated, the Associated Press report added.
Yahoo's board believes Microsoft's offer, originally valued at $44.6 billion, is insufficient. Microsoft, though, has stood firm and is now preparing to overthrow Yahoo's 10-member board, which includes the company's co-founder and chief executive, Jerry Yang. Microsoft faces a March 14 deadline to nominate an alternate slate of directors, the report said.
The impasse has triggered four shareholder suits in California's Santa Clara County Superior Court. Three other complaints have been filed in Delaware by pension funds that own Yahoo's stock.
Five of the suits allege Yahoo's board breached its duty by spurning Microsoft without trying to negotiate a better deal, according to the annual report. The two other suits allege Yahoo unfairly favored Microsoft's 'inadequate' bid even though the board eventually turned down the original cash-and-stock offer of $31 per share, the report said.
Because Microsoft's stock price has declined by 13 % since the pursuit of Yahoo began, the bid is now worth $28.94 per share, or about $40 billion, it added.
Since its February 11 rebuff of Microsoft, Yahoo has been exploring other options that would provide its shareholders with a better payoff than Microsoft's proposed takeover, the Associated Press report further said.