Yahoo!'s not to be "pulled apart and left for the chickens"

Carol Bartz, Yahoo!'s brand-new CEO, revealed her first public assessment of embattled Yahoo! on Tuesday, arguing the company is stronger as a whole than as the sum of its parts.

"This is a fantastic internet property and it doesn't deserve everybody trying to pick it and pull it apart," Bartz said in a conference call after Yahoo! reported mixed fourth-quarter results. Looking at statistics such as how many people use Yahoo!, how long they stay on the site, and how they value its properties, she said, "This is not a company that needs to be pulled apart and left for the chickens."

The obvious question is what that means for the possibility of selling the search business to Microsoft, a possibility that emerged last year, though the companies couldn't agree to terms. Bartz wouldn't rule out that transaction nor declare it a great idea but her tone left the impression she'll need more convincing.

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Specifically, she said she's not going to put the interests of short-term shareholders looking for a stock pop ahead of the long-term investors who are more patient for the company to improve its operations.

"It's my job to make sure that as a company we look at anything that makes sense long-term for the company and creates shareholder value. It's very easy to have different shareholder interests. Some are short-term so they can jump out and some [are] long term. It's our job to make sure we're looking at the bell curve of shareholder value," she said. "Everything is on the table."

She shared some thinking about the search business specifically, though she qualified it with the comment that Yahoo! would have to invest in it regardless of whether the company wanted to keep it or sell it. For one thing, it's "extremely useful" to understand users' intent through searches. For another, query growth, stemmed market share losses to Google, and faster introduction "increases the value of the product. It's good for our brand and our shareholders, no matter what our long-term plan", she said.

Chief financial officer, Blake Jorgensen, also went into some detail about the search business.

"We're building off the road map, first with Panama [Yahoo!'s search ad sales system] and now with our continued innovation with Search Assist, SearchMonkey. It's helped us stabilise the share," Jorgensen said. And Yahoo!'s numerous and often high-traffic properties help keep search ticking, he added.