MSFT begins proxy fight, nominates new board

It is official, MSFT dropped their bid for Yahoo! and at least for now, ain't comin' back. Ballmer even said that the Redmond giant wasn't planning a proxy fight, either, pursuing instead a more "organic" strategy. --The Industry Standard

The WSJ has it the MSFT's next move i.e. a proxy battle, is imminent. As background, Marc Andreessen had an incredibly helpful post up two days ago on what exactly MSFT's options are and what a proxy battle would look like. And TechCrunch's Mark Hendrickson has a list of 8 of MSFT's 12 proposed board members.

This is a prediction that must satisfy the following 2 conditions in order to be judged favorably:

First, MSFT formally engages in a proxy battle with Yahoo! (which would be marked by the official nomination of a new board of directors) Second, the list of nominees includes at least 6 of the 8 names mentioned by TechCrunch.

The deadline for betting on this prediction is May 9.