Yahoo gets a new, hard-charging CEO

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By Michael Liedtke ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO — It didn't take long for Carol Bartz, Yahoo Inc.'s new chief executive, to demonstrate that her style will differ dramatically from that of her predecessor - Jerry Yang, the genial, soft-spoken co-founder of the struggling Internet company.

Less than an hour after Yahoo announced her hiring Tuesday, Ms. Bartz was vowing to ensure the company gets some "... breathing room" so it can "kick some butt."

"I see this as a company with enormous assets that, frankly, could use a little management," Ms. Bartz said on a conference call that was cut short so she could hustle off to her first meeting with her new subordinates at Yahoo.

The decision to lure Ms. Bartz, 60, from software maker Autodesk Inc. ended Yahoo's two-month search to replace Mr. Yang, who surrendered the CEO reins after potentially lucrative deals with rivals Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. both collapsed.

A self-described "straight shooter," Ms. Bartz is known for a no-nonsense approach that enabled her to turn around Autodesk after she battled back from breast cancer. She is now being counted on to work her magic again at Yahoo, a prized Internet brand that has been losing its luster with Web surfers, investors and even its own employees for the past three years.

Ms. Bartz's appointment could set the stage for Microsoft to renew its efforts to buy Yahoo's Internet-search operations as a way of mounting a more serious threat to Google, the market leader. Microsoft had been reluctant to deal with Mr. Yang because he rebuffed several previous overtures, including a $47.5 billion offer to buy Yahoo in its entirety last May.

Microsoft subsequently withdrew that bid, valued at $33 per share. Mr. Yang had hoped to placate shareholders by using Google's superior technology to sell some of the ads alongside Yahoo's search results, but that idea unraveled in November after antitrust regulators threatened to block the deal.

Yahoo's decision to bring in an outsider apparently irked its president, Susan Decker, who also was a candidate for the CEO job. She now plans to resign after a transitional period. Both Mrs. Decker and Ms. Bartz are on Intel Corp.'s board of directors.

"We are very confident [Ms. Bartz] is the right leader to get Yahoo back on track and help the company achieve its full potential," Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock said.

Ms. Bartz's track record indicates she will move quickly to build upon Yahoo's strengths while doing her best to shed the weaknesses.