"Proxy access" is shareholders' ability to nominate directors to run against a company's chosen slate of director nominees using its annual meeting materials. Activist investor Starboard Value LP, which owns about 1.7% of Yahoo, launched a proxy fight last week to overthrow the company's nine-member board. Yahoo Just Gave Wannabe Buyers a Deadline for Preliminary Bids Yahoo, under pressure from shareholders to sell its core business, began an auction of the business last month after shelving plans to spin off its stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Yahoo said on Wednesday that the amended bylaws would come into effect after its 2016 annual meeting, which means they would be effective from the 2017 meeting.