Yahoo Names Two to Board

Yahoo Inc. said it added two members to its board of directors, which has been in a tumult as it continues to explore a sale of the company's struggling core business.

Yahoo said it added Catherine Friedman, a former managing director of Morgan Stanley, and Eric Brandt, former chief financial officer of semiconductor company Broadcom Corp. to the board, bringing it back to nine members.

Two previous board members, Max Levchin and Charles Schwab, had resigned in recent months, citing their other professional commitments.

Yahoo has been under pressure to figure out what it wants to do with its core business and its large stake in Chinese technology company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Activist investor Starboard Value LP has said it plans to nominate a slate of directors to replace a majority of the current board if the company doesn't move forward with a sale of the core business. Investors can nominate directors through March 26.

A Starboard spokesperson wasn't immediately available to comment on the board appointments.

Tensions remain between members of the board and company management. While Yahoo's massive online audience remains, the company has struggled to increase revenue in recent years or grow as fast as competitors such as Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google as a number of internet-startup acquisitions have not been successful.

In February, Yahoo's board of directors said it had hired banking advisers and formed an "independent committee" to explore strategic alternatives. Yahoo declined to name the committee's members, but a Yahoo spokeswoman confirmed at the time that the group excludes Ms. Mayer and Yahoo co-founder David Filo, the two insiders on the board.