Bartz bullish on Yahoo's future

Bartz is concentrating on innovation and revenues

Yahoo chief executive Carol Bartz has implied in an interview with CNBC that the company's former chief executive, Jerry Yang, was "stupid" for turning down Microsoft's initial offers to buy the firm last year.

Bartz joined Yahoo in January from Autodesk and immediately set about putting her stamp on the troubled company. Now, some nine months later, in a congenial CNBC Squawkbox interview, she was bullish about her role, and where she sees the search portal and advertising firm making an impact.

One thing Bartz would have changed, had she assumed her position earlier, was the selling price to Microsoft. Responding to a question from the show hosts on whether she would have taken Microsoft's original bid, Bartz replied: "Sure. You think I'm stupid? Let's see, 15 or 34? Yeah, I think so."

Regardless, Bartz asserted that the final deal was good for Yahoo as it will allow the firm to concentrate on two things: innovation and revenues.

"We can take costs down and still take 80 per cent of the revenues," she said. "And we can add focus to where we add value."

This "value" is in contextual or, as Bartz called it, "emotional" advertising.

Bartz was a bit woolly about how Yahoo will innovate, suggesting only that internet users need a one-stop online destination for all relevant information and material.

Possibly referring to Google's minimalist homepage, Bartz said: "I don't wake up in the morning and say 'Gosh what am I going to search?' I wake up and say 'What's happening?'"

Bartz said that, in order to make the new look MyYahoo page more popular, since the old version was adopted by only 15 per cent of users, the firm has made it easier for users to add features.