Latest Yahoo CEO Comments Remarkably F-Bomb Free (But Rife With Flip-Flops)
by John Paczkowski
Posted on June 3, 2009 at 11:50 AM PT
What Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz lacked in the way of salty language at today’s Bank of America U.S. Technology conference, she more than made up for in cutting remarks about Microsoft (MSFT). Apparently, she doesn’t believe Yahoo’s (YHOO) salvation lies in a search deal with the software giant. And she doesn’t think much of its new search engine Bing, either. While Bartz acknowledged that a deal with Microsoft might yield some cost savings and benefits in scale, she doesn’t find either a compelling reason to jump into bed with the company. “Yahoo doesn’t have to do anything with Microsoft about anything,” she said. “Yahoo has a bright, bright future, probably cleaner and simpler without even thinking of any Microsoft connections.I personally think we’d be better off if we never heard the word Microsoft.”
Oddly, at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference last week, Bartz said she was open to a deal, as long as Microsoft handed over “boatloads of money” (see video below).
And as for Bing, which was introduced at D7, Bartz isn’t convinced by those new commercials, either. “They’re not going to get scale through Bing. They’re going to get some temporary interest,” she said. “It’s interesting but not over-the-top interesting,” she said. “People will keep the same habits.”
And, really, did you expect Bartz, who is obviously playing for the cheap seats, to say anything else?
