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Bartz to Be Yahoo CEO: Now What Next?
Posted Jan 13, 2009 01:22pm EST by Kara Swisher in Investing, Internet, Newsmakers
From All Things Digital, Jan. 13, 2009:
It looks like Carol Bartz will be taking on the thankless role as new Yahoo CEO.
Sources close to the situation told BoomTown–which had first named the former Autodesk CEO the top pick last week–said she had been approved for the job and had accepted it.
The Wall Street Journal is also reporting the move.
The pick is one of the safest Yahoo could have made, which is typical for it, choosing an experienced and strong public company CEO, but one without a lot of experience in advertising or the Web 2.0 Internet.
In a reaction piece to the possibility of making Bartz the CEO of Yahoo I posted last week, the reaction was mixed, with some lauding it as an important move to steady the long troubled company, while other calling it problematic for the leader to not have a deep Web background.
One thing is sure: Bartz does know tech, unlike former CEO Terry Semel. And she also knows how to run a company like clockwork, unlike outgoing CEO Jerry Yang, who–while inspirational–has had a rocky tenure.
With an upcoming fourth quarter that is likely to be a disasters, Bartz will have a lot on her plate, including working out a much expected deal with Microsoft and deciding what to do about the constipated deal to buy Time Warner online unit, AOL.
More on Bartz's background
Bartz is certainly an experienced and very well-regarded tech exec, with the talent to turn things around. She served as chairman, president and CEO for 14 years at the San Rafael, Calif.-based Autodesk, which makes design software for engineers.
While there, Bartz presided over huge growth at Autodesk (ADSK), stepping down in April of 2006, and has since served as its executive chairman.
She also put in stints at other big tech companies, including Sun Microsystems (JAVA), Digital Equipment Corporation and 3M (MMM).
According to her resume on Autodesk’s Web site, Bartz holds an honors degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin.
More interestingly, Bartz is also on the boards of a blue chip list of companies and organizations, including Intel (INTC), Cisco Systems (CSCO), NetApp (NTAP), and the Foundation for the National Medals of Science and Technology.
Yang is also on the board of Cisco, and Yahoo President Sue Decker is on Intel’s, so Bartz is a well known quantity to Yahoo.
She is also exactly the kind of serious, seasoned public company CEO with tech experience whom Yahoo’s board has told investors and others it is looking for, with skills to pull off mergers and think strategically.
But Bartz also was in charge of a more old-school kind of tech company, and has less experience in the faster-moving Web environment that prevails now.
Although she toughed it out successfully, Bartz underwent tough times during the Web 1.0 era, in fact, when investors were worried about Autodesk’s prospects in the online era.
Still, Bartz also has less advertising experience, which is Yahoo’s principal business.
Nonetheless, she is well-liked in the tech community and has ties to key companies Yahoo must deal with, including Microsoft.
For more news, go to All Things Digital.
__A_YAHOO_USER__ - Tuesday January 13, 2009 03:37PM EST
If she can get my 2wire to work....she has my vote!
GoPat - Tuesday January 13, 2009 02:33PM EST
Hmmm sell, sell, sell. Remember Carly Fiorina!
Richard - Tuesday January 13, 2009 03:22PM EST
P S About the AOL deal simple,put it in the waste basket .
Bernard - Tuesday January 13, 2009 03:37PM EST
Carol will bring incredible talent to Yahoo. I have worked with Carol for years and respect her as one of the best executives in the industry. Do any of you people out there have any idea what it takes to lead a high tech company? I doubt that very much. Does Wall St have a clue about management talent? None ! Why not hold all your comments and give Carol an opportunity to demonstrate her abilities and win you over as she has done so many times in the past. Yahoo shareholders and employees are very lucky to have her at the helm. You go girl !!!
Joe - Tuesday January 13, 2009 02:34PM EST
If she runs Yahoo like Autodesk everyone will need 15 different programs to get Yahoo mail and or use the Yahoo browser.
Yahoo! Finance User - Tuesday January 13, 2009 03:41PM EST
It's all uphill from here for Yahoo. Look, the company is at its worst in the worst economic environment in a lifetime. If you live in the sewer, the gutter seems like the Ritz. Go Carol!
Junaid - Tuesday January 13, 2009 02:34PM EST
I thought the point was to read the facts. If you want a well written and yet an inaccurate story, go dial in to your school newspaper. I was able to read and understand every word and have moved on since! You people get a life.
gregbo - Tuesday January 13, 2009 04:32PM EST
One more thing - buying AOL is a horrible idea! The worst thing a beleaguered company can do is to buy another beleaguered company. Again, as I've said, for Y! to be a success, it must pursue greenfield technology. Trying to buy "eyeballs" and "market share" will just further cripple it.
. - Tuesday January 13, 2009 02:35PM EST
hopefully the first thing she will do is fire all the idiots currently working at yahoo and bring in some people with intelligence
Mary H - Tuesday January 13, 2009 04:43PM EST
The guy who said 'remember Carley' apparently is too biased to realize the present success of HP is do to Carley's long term planning and the implementation of it after her departure.The successor CEO cut jobs and expenses while following the cheat sheet.He gets the credit mainly for layoffs which Carley said were necessary but delayed doing.
ValM - Tuesday January 13, 2009 10:34PM EST
Carol is a great operator and will do well at Yahoo. A fact of interest is that she and Eric Schmidt were senior VP's and colleagues at Sun during the glory days at Sun. Does this possibly bring Google into the picture?
MarkC - Tuesday January 13, 2009 02:36PM EST
Bartz is a poor choice. Autodesk has lost market share to Solidworks and Maya with it's two main products. They can't keep up with either one. They are losing ground to several companies in Architecture as well. They have raised prices to academic institutions so high that now they are not the software of choice in schools. They have an arrogant attiude. All this happened under her tenure. She will ruin Yahoo.
Mary H - Tuesday January 13, 2009 04:47PM EST
The guy who said 'remember Carley' apparently is too biased to realize the present success of HP is do to Carley's long term planning and the implementation of it after her departure.The successor CEO cut jobs and expenses while following the cheat sheet.He gets the credit mainly for layoffs which Carley said were necessary but delayed doing.
Dgws - Tuesday January 13, 2009 10:40PM EST
Give her a chance. New horizons? How about giving Yahoo Mail some decent word-processing and other features (abbreviations to pull up oft-used phrases, colors!!, musical phrase! inserting photos in the address bar?)? You can't even change the font, as far as I can tell. Attracting people to the Yahoo home page and the attendant ad revenue depends on people choosing Yahoo email, which it seems to me, based on anecdote and my inbox alone, is being rapidly abandoned. I'm barely computer "dah," but it seems to me that Mail is boring, limited, and lags behind other internet technology. Other email is not much better, but that would give Yahoo the edge if it offered advanced features first.
Yahoo! Finance User - Tuesday January 13, 2009 02:42PM EST
One of the most important jobs of a CEO is knowing how to rally and effectively use talent. Ms. Bartz does not have to be an advertising guru, but she does have to know how to identify and utilize those who are experienced in it. Whether or not she has an extensive "Web 2.0" background is not nearly as crucial as how well she is able implement the talent she has around her. She has to know how to listen, ask smart questions, and steer the company in a direction of positive growth. As far as this article? Dn't let the criticisms get you down, Ms. Swisher. Sure, more care needs to be taken to edit out the First Draft errors and re-edits, and I'm certain you are feeling a bit silly about missing them. However, a few mistakes does not an incapable writer make. :-) Actually, I thought the use of the word 'constipated' added flair to what is normally a very mundane subject. Let's just hope the deal doesn't become too, ahem, liquid under Ms. Bartz leadership. :-O
dfb - Wednesday January 14, 2009 01:25AM EST
Good, Yahoo! is getting back to what it is and should be - a tech company that puts out great products.
Yahoo! Finance User - Tuesday January 13, 2009 02:42PM EST
Common guys...give her a break. There is only one error in this article.
Volonox - Tuesday January 13, 2009 02:49PM EST
R.I.P. Yahoo! Yang was a great CEO, but he inherited one hell of a mess from Terry Semen and one rabid investor, Carl Icahn. The media, as usual, started bombarding Yang from the first minute he became CEO; not to mention Microsoft's Ballmoron salivating over a Yahoo! acquisition.
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Richard - Tuesday January 13, 2009 03:14PM EST
Congratulations and Good Luck Ms.Bartz on your appointment to CEO of Yahoo. I see one good sign,the idiots on Wall street,don't think you are a good pick. My lap-top has one Google tool-bar but two Yahoo tool-bars and Yahoo is my home page. At 82 years of age and retired i enjoy Yahoo news every day and Yahoo games esp. checkers and pool. I surely hope you can return the games and profiles back to the old format. Thank You ,and again Good Luck www.rjd1425@yahoo.com