Business Channel 2007-0615&17

Yahoo launching a celebrity¹ gossip site, hoping to cash in on the summer of Paris Hilton. This as shareholders³ seem to have no problem with CEO Terry Semel cashing in on Yahoo’s flat stock performance. CNBC, Silicon⁴ Valley of your trip, Jim Goldman is live at Yahoo’s annual meeting in Santa Clara, California tonight. Jim?

Hey, you know, Melissa, a little bit of a surprise today. Just, you know the length of this meeting was the first surprise. Better than 2 and a half hours, took a lot of people off guard. The other surprise was the reelection of the boarder directors. Not that they were reelected, which includes CEO and Chairman Terry Semel, but the margin⁵ of victory, 66%, indicating better that 33% of shareholders were following the advice of the independent watchdog group’s institutional shareholder² services as well as proxy⁶ governors, to vote against this, this slate⁷ of directors, and that was, that was a significant surprise, a real significant protest vote if you will, against this current slate, mostly because of the heavy salary that Terry Semel. with stock options has enjoyed hundreds of millions of dollars over the past couple of years. When in fact the stock has gone essentially⁸ nowhere. So really some interesting developments on that front, and then the other thing of course is the ongoing⁹ controversy¹⁰ of Yahoo doing business in China. The company shared search results and documentation with the Chinese government, and that led to a ten-year prison term for a Chinese journalist. So there are a lot of controversial comments about that. But J himself addressed that saying that it was time for the company really came out against those kinds of policies in China. But in the end, the company’s hands were tied. In order to do business in China, they got to follow Chinese Laws, so an interesting day, but essentially Terry Semel, he got a past today, as far as the shareholders were concerned.

Folks like it. And I got to say that’s pretty surprising because so many people have been calling for him to get out. I mean, what was the buzz. What was the bib light, coz they are really, you know, this demand for change or is that a kind of media-driven.

You know, I don’t necessarily think it’s media-driven. I think there is that buzz. A lot of we spoke¹¹ to are frustrated¹² about the company’s performance, but interestingly, Terry Semel kept guiding the meeting torwards next month’s Yahoo earning’s report, that’s the first opportunity we will have to see just how significant Panama, the new melioration’s software has become as far as contributing to the bottom line. There’s a lot of talk because Semel kept doing that in the meeting today that maybe Panama is actually performing a whole lot better than anyone had anticipated. That could make for a very interesting, shall we say, newsy development when the company comes out with the earnings¹³ the second week of July. This could be a story that may actually be on the way of improving in a significant way.

Interesting, what a tease. OK, Jim, I kown you are staying on that of course. We appreciate…

1 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

2 shareholder   

n.股东，股票持有人

参考例句：

• The account department have prepare a financial statement for the shareholder.财务部为股东准备了一份财务报表。
• A shareholder may transfer his shares in accordance with the law.股东持有的股份可以依法转让。

3 shareholders   

n.股东( shareholder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The meeting was attended by 90% of shareholders. 90%的股东出席了会议。
• the company's fiduciary duty to its shareholders 公司对股东负有的受托责任

4 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

5 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

6 proxy   

n.代理权，代表权；（对代理人的）委托书；代理人

参考例句：

• You may appoint a proxy to vote for you.你可以委托他人代你投票。
• We enclose a form of proxy for use at the Annual General Meeting.我们附上委任年度大会代表的表格。

7 slate   

n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订

参考例句：

• The nominating committee laid its slate before the board.提名委员会把候选人名单提交全体委员会讨论。
• What kind of job uses stained wood and slate? 什么工作会接触木头污浊和石板呢？

8 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

9 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

10 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

11 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

12 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。