Next week marks the one year anniversary of Yahoo’s restructuring that put Bartz at the helm. According to Bloomberg.com,
The CEO of Autodesk Inc. from 1992 to 2006, Bartz took the reins at Yahoo from the company’s co-founder Jerry Yang. He rankled investors in 2008 by spurning a $47.5 billion takeover attempt by Microsoft. Yang then pursued an ad partnership with Mountain View, California-based Google Inc. That deal fell apart in late 2008 after the U.S. government threatened to challenge the agreement.
By the time Bartz took over, Microsoft said it was no longer interested in an acquisition, preferring a partnership instead. She worked out that deal about six months after her arrival. Under the 10-year agreement, aimed at challenging Google, Yahoo will use Microsoft’s Bing search engine on its Web sites.
Bartz says she gives herself a B- for her first year efforts, but Yahoo chairman Bostock reportedly gives her an A-. Bartz had a tough row to hoe taking over the helm from Yang after the failed sellout and subsequent attempted coup by investors, but she has managed to steer the company away from the abyss it was threatening to disappear into last year.
In other Yahoo, news, BOSS isnt dead – yet. In a post on the Yahoo BOSS Tech Group, Ashrim notes that BOSS has been in limbo sicne no-one was sure how the deal with Microsoft would work out:
Under this agreement, Yahoo! is permitted to continue offering the BOSS web service, with search results that would integrate Yahoo! services and content with algorithmic results provided by Microsoft. As always, our intention is to provide a BOSS offering as long as it makes business and economic sense to do so. We are still examining what the BOSS offering will consist of, with some services powered by Microsoft, unique content that Yahoo! currently provides, and the potential for additional Yahoo! content in the future.
Prior to the announcement of the Yahoo!-Microsoft search agreement, we’d already shared our intention to explore a fee-based structure for BOSS. We continue to explore an appropriate fee structure or other revenue model as we work through the future of BOSS.
As you know, we must receive regulatory clearance before actual implementation of the search deal with Microsoft can occur.
Yahoo is also experiencing a higher level of ad implementation, according to WSJ:
Yahoo Inc. has signed an agreement to produce online programming that could push the integration of advertising into dramatic storylines, news and reality shows to new levels.
The partnership between Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo (YHOO) and content studio Electus, which is run by former NBC (GE) executive Ben Silverman, was announced early Friday.