New Yahoo boss wants to keep search

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 15 Jan 2009 at 17:06

Yahoo's new chief executive, Carol Bartz, has told employees her gut instinct is to hang on to the company's search business, according to a company source.

But Bartz also told staff she needs to better understand the pros and cons involved in selling the business.

Bartz said her first instinct was to ask why the company would need to sell the search business.

Yahoo shares fell more than 6% in early trading in the US.

The source said Bartz told employees she was expecting to have a conversation with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Dow Jones newswire quoted a Yahoo source as saying Bartz spoke with Ballmer in the past 24 hours.

Bartz's appointment, which was confirmed on Tuesday, paves the way for the internet company to finally make decisions on its big issues, including a sale or search deal with Microsoft.

Under previous CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang, Yahoo rejected a $47.5 billion buyout offer from Microsoft nearly a year ago.

Yang, who then saw an alternative web search advertising partnership with Google fall apart under US antitrust scrutiny, agreed to step down in November.