Carol Bartz steps down from Intel board

Carol Bartz has stepped down from the Intel board

Yahoo chief executive Carol Bartz has stepped down from her role on the Intel board, while Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has thrown more weight behind a possible tie-up between the Redmond giant and Yahoo.

Replacing Bartz on the Intel board will be John Donahoe, president and chief executive of eBay, and Frank Yeary, vice chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley. Donahoe joined eBay in 2005 and was appointed chief executive last year, while Yeary is an adviser to the chancellor and his senior staff at UC Berkeley.

"Both John and Frank bring a wealth of strategic business and financial experience that will assist us now and going forward," said Paul Otellini, Intel president and chief executive.

"Intel and the board are sorry to see Carol Bartz leave. We thank her for her service on our board, and wish her all the best at her new job at Yahoo."

Bartz's move will allow her to focus fully on strengthening Yahoo. She joined the firm as chief executive in January, and has already announced plans to partner with social networking firms and investigate more targeted advertising systems.

Bartz has overseen a major restructure at Yahoo, combining the Tech and Product groups into one unit under the remit of chief technology officer Ari Balogh, and splitting the company into two regional focus areas - US and International - to help broaden the focus out from the US.

Various senior executives have left Yahoo since Bartz's arrival, including Blake Jorgensen, chief financial officer, Neeraj Khemlani, head of Yahoo news and information, and Larry Heck, vice president of search and advertising sciences at Yahoo Labs.

Bartz has also got her hands full with the continuing prospect of a deal with Microsoft. Ballmer was reported to have said during an interview at the McGraw-Hill Media Summit this week that a "fairly compelling set of economics" were at the basis of a search deal between Microsoft and Yahoo.

He added that he had had a telephone conversation with Bartz, and that a face-to-face chat would follow "when appropriate".