SAN FRANCISCO — Only 15 minutes after becoming chairman of Yahoo Inc., Roy Bostock was startled by his first order of business: how to deal with Microsoft Corp.'s $44.6-billion buyout offer.
The 67-year-old Madison Avenue veteran, chosen for his marketing expertise, had barely replaced Terry Semel the evening of Jan. 31 when Microsoft made its unsolicited bid.
Bostock took the news with aplomb, according to a person familiar with the events. He graciously accepted welcome-to-the-job jokes from his fellow board members, then he got to work.
"It was a helluva first day," said another person close to the board.
With Microsoft's takeover attempt, the years of botched opportunities and strategic indecision at Yahoo suddenly landed on Bostock's shoulders.
The Sunnyvale, Calif., Internet company is under pressure from shareholders to reverse slowing growth and boost a stock that until the Redmond, Wash.-based technology giant swooped in had drifted to a four-year low.
Now Yahoo's board must make a choice that will undoubtedly shape the future of advertising.
The man leading deliberations has influenced advertising's past: One of the highlights of his four decades in the field was introducing America to a mouthwash called Scope.
But Bostock, who through a Yahoo spokeswoman declined to be interviewed, is more than a marketer. People who know him well say his expertise in handling a wide variety of crisis situations -- the rape scandal at his alma mater Duke University, turbulent labor relations at Northwest Airlines and the sub-prime mortgage mess at Morgan Stanley -- make him the right choice to guide Yahoo through its decision.
"I don't think there is anyone calmer, more intelligent and more level-headed than Roy," said Linda Kaplan Thaler, chief executive of Kaplan Thaler Group, an ad agency.
He will need to tap that reservoir of patience and intellect, said Skip Battle, the former chairman of PeopleSoft Inc. The software maker grappled with Oracle Corp.'s hostile takeover for 18 months before succumbing in December 2004.
Battle recalled the stress of trying to forge a consensus about the best interests of shareholders in the glare of the public spotlight. As with PeopleSoft, Yahoo directors must consider complex strategic and legal issues, including whether the acquisition would clear regulatory hurdles.
