Business Insider has traded emails with Carlos Bazan-Canabal, the former Yahoo executive who put together the failed Yellow Pages deal that landed the company with a $2.7 billion judgment against it in a Mexican court.
It turns out that Bazan-Canabal may be the one suing Yahoo.
We say "may" because he was frustratingly vague in our email correspondence. But when we asked him directly about the case, he told us:
Please note that we have retained Paul Gupta at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and all press inquiries should be directed to him. Meanwhile, we are working on translating the judgment [into] English. I will be sending you a copy early next week.
Orrick is one of Silicon Valley's most prestigious law firms. Gupta, notably, has tangled with Yahoo before, representing AOL in a patent case in New York. Neither Gupta nor a spokesperson for Orrick has responded to inquiries about its role in the Mexican case.
Yahoo did not respond to inquiries about Bazan-Canabal or the case. The company has only said that the lawsuit is "without merit" and it intends to pursue all possible means of appeal.
So who is Bazan-Canabal?
According to his LinkedIn profile, Bazan-Canabal joined Yahoo in 1999, helping set the company up in Mexico and win control of its local domain name, yahoo.com.mx.
He also says that at Yahoo, he struck a deal with a company called Ideas Interactivas, part of Worldwide Directories, to produce print and online telephone directories in Mexico. He subsequently joined Worldwide Directories as its VP of corporate development.
Yahoo and Worldwide Directories produced at least one edition of the print directory, according to Mexican tech blogger Jose Luis Cruz, who posted a photo of the 2004-2005 edition and reported that Yahoo had unilaterally terminated its contract to produce the directory.
Bazan-Canabal currently runs Alternativo Networks, a firm with offices in Murrieta, Calif., and Mexico which offers social media and public-relations services and also operates a number of blogs. His LinkedIn profile suggests some link between Alternativo Networks and Worldwide Directories.
Bazan-Canabal seems to understand that the case will cast more attention on him. On Friday, he tweeted (as translated from Spanish):
When in one day you get more than 200 followers ... and when you realize why ... Anyway. We'll read it for ourselves on Monday.
And sure enough, on Monday he posted several links to stories about the lawsuit.
Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.
Join the conversation about this story »
