Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has one word for investors attempting to gather any information floating in the wind about whether Yahoo will, or won't, do a deal with Microsoft: chill.
Bartz, speaking Tuesday in San Francisco at her first investor conference since taking the helm as Yahoo CEO more than six weeks ago, relayed the same message she conveyed to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
"I said this to Mr. Ballmer, I will not negotiate with you and 30,000 of my closest friends. I will negotiate privately," said Bartz, adding to investors, "If something happens, you will know about it then." She made her remarks, which were available via audiocast, at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference.
Regardless of any potential Microsoft deal, Bartz was adamant that Yahoo needs to retain access to its search data, because it is key to knowing what its users' intent is when conducting searches. That information assists Yahoo in delivering relevant ads to users, who would then potentially have a greater reason to click on the ad, which would result in a payment to Yahoo from the advertiser.
She noted that Yahoo's top 200 advertisers are looking for the Internet search pioneer to provide a combined one-stop shop of both paid performance ads and display ads.
Bartz added that in delivering the content that users seek, the traffic to Yahoo's sites will grow and advertisers will follow.
Mail is one area she is particularly excited about and noted that the company is gearing up to release a new version of its service.
"We have a billion e-mails passing through our servers every day. Mail is really important to us and that is why I'm excited about a new mail service," Bartz said.
But one area that Yahoo has held back on investing in extensively is Yahoo Maps. Although there is a maps feature on the site, it pales in comparison to the street views and satellite views found on Google.
Noted Bartz: "I don't use Yahoo Maps. I use Google Maps."
Whether Yahoo maps will be a feature Yahoo retains has yet to be seen. There is Yahoo's Wall of Shame, after all. Yahoo products that the company is contemplating fixing or ditching find their way to the wall.
For Google's executive management team, the $6.3 million in bonuses they received for last year's performance can buy a lot of Android phones.
Google, in a filing Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, noted its new chief financial officer, Patrick Pichette, received a $1.24 million bonus for his five months of work on the new job. For Pichette, he did not have to wait a full 12 months to become a Google millionaire.
Outgoing CFO George Reyes, meanwhile, received a bonus of $675,000. Over the past year, Google's stock has outperformed the Nasdaq.
Over the past year, Google's stock has outperformed the Nasdaq.
(Credit: Yahoo Finance)Google's Jonathan Rosenberg, senior vice president of product management, received the largest bonus, with $1.64 million coming his way.
Rosenberg was one Google executive who was active on its fourth-quarter earnings call, in which the company exceeded Wall Street's estimates despite facing the headwinds of a dire economy.
Alan Eustace, senior vice president of engineering and research and development, and Omid Kordestani, senior vice president of global sales and business development, meanwhile, each received a $1.38 million bonus.
As with , Google's co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as its CEO Eric Schmidt, did not collect a bonus.
Yahoo's tab in its efforts to fight off Microsoft last year ran $79 million, according to the company's filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Yahoo spent much of that bill on outside advisers who helped it weigh , which ranged from a total buyout bid for $33 a share to an eventual offer to acquire only Yahoo's search business. Yahoo rejected all of Microsoft's proposals.
Part of the $79 million bill was also attributed to hiring outside advisers for fighting off a proxy contest by activist shareholder Carl Icahn, who eventually settled with the company and received three seats on Yahoo's board.
A portion of the bill also went to Yahoo's outside advisers considering its controversial search agreement with Google, which ultimately ended with the companies walking away from the deal when federal antitrust regulators said it would challenge the deal.
For Yahoo, however, the true cost was much greater than just $79 million.
In the process, Yahoo founder and CEO Jerry Yang stepped down after enduring the brunt of shareholder anger and has since resumed his role as chief Yahoo. Sue Decker, who was Yahoo's president during the tumultuous year, lost out her bid to become the next CEO when Yahoo's board named former Autodesk chief Carol Bartz to oversee the troubled Internet company. And Yahoo saw an exodus of executives in June 2008.
Update at 8:12 a.m. PST: Analyst comments and stock price added.
InterActiveCorp turned a profit in the fourth quarter but took a 7 percent revenue hit, amid a sharp downturn in its advertising and media business, the company said Tuesday.
Barry Diller's media conglomerate reported revenue of $351 million in the quarter, down from $378.9 million in the same quarter a year earlier. That performance missed Wall Street expectations of $368 million, analyst Imran Khan of J.P. Morgan said in a note.
The company, however, posted a profit of $227.4 million, or $1.57 a share, in the quarter, compared with a net loss of $369.9 million, or $2.53 a share, during the same period a year ago.
But when excluding the sale of one of its investments and the write-down of other investments, IAC posted a profit of 18 cents a share. Analysts were expected a profit of 20 cents a share on that basis, Khan said.
IAC was up less than 1 percent to $14.94 a share in morning trading.
During the quarter, the company's media and advertising businesses, such as Ask.com, Fun Web Products, Dictionary.com, and Citysearch, posted revenue of $183.7 million, a 19 percent decline compared with the year-ago quarter.
Khan's note also commented on IAC's weakness in media and advertising:
Revenue reflects a significant decline in network revenue, which we believe is due to increased competition from Google with this business line. We think other companies with similar exposure could also show weakness. Query declines at Ask.com reflect significantly lower marketing spend in the period. Revenue per query also declined due to fewer clicks per visit.
IAC attributed a portion of that decline to scaling back on some of its partnerships after it renewed its partnership with Google.
IAC's Match.com revenue fell a modest 3 percent to $88.1 million over the same period a year earlier. Despite the revenue decline, worldwide subscriber growth increased by 5 percent in the quarter, reaching its highest level of paid membership.
The company did post double-digit revenue growth in its ServiceMagic.com business and emerging businesses, such as Shoebuy.com, Pronto.com, Gifts.com, and InstantAction.com.
Lycos Europe announced on Wednesday plans to shutter its portal and Web-hosting business and find a buyer for three other areas of its business.
The company, which last month announced a 20 percent drop in revenue to 46.9 million euros ($60.8 million) and a net loss of 17.1 million euros, said the decision was made after reviewing its strategic options for several months.
It also plans to seek a buyer for other parts of its operation: its domains, Danish portal, and shopping activities.
Investors will vote on the management proposal at the company's December 12 shareholders meeting. Should the proposal receive approval, Lycos Europe will distribute 50 million euros to shareholders by year's end.
The closure of Lycos Europe's portal, which includes search, online communities, and content channels, comes as it faces increased competition from Yahoo and Google and a decline in user traffic.
A view of Yahoo Glue Pages when they debuted in India earlier this year. The feature builds a mini-portal around search results.
(Credit: Yahoo)Yahoo rolled out a U.S. beta version of its Glue Pages, giving a visual boost to users' search results, according to a posting on its Yahoo blog site.
The beta is designed to allow users to enter a search and have not only text links appear on the site, but also related pictures, videos and blogs.
The company is taking a page from its Yahoo India Glue Pages site, which it unveiled in May.
With this effort, Yahoo is seeking to put related content all on one page, while its competitor Google currently offers up text links, with additional links to related photos, videos, blogs, books and news.
Microsoft's Live Search takes a similar approach to Google's.
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