Advertising and marketing

Updated at 5:20 p.m. PST, with comments from executive recruiter Jon Holman.

Yahoo is providing its new CEO, Carol Bartz, with a $1 million base salary, as part of a lucrative $19 million compensation package for the former Autodesk executive, according to a filing Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Under the four-year employment contract, Bartz, 60, will also receive an annual equity grant valued at approximately $8 million in February, the filing stated. This grant will be doled out at the same time other Yahoo executives receive their annual equity grants.

And like most … Read more

Update 10:58 a.m. PST: Added latest stock price and detail from a Wall Street Journal article.

Yahoo's new chief executive, Carol Bartz, has told employees her first inclination is to hold onto Yahoo's search business, but said she needs to delve further into the subject, according to a Reuters report citing an anonymous source.

Yahoo shares dropped as much as 9.6 percent to $11.22 a share in morning trading Thursday.

Bartz, who addressed employees during a companywide meeting Wednesday, reportedly indicated she has already had an informal conversation with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer since … Read more

About 69.5 percent of Internet searches in the U.S. took place through Google during 2008, with search traffic increasing 8 percent over 2007, according to research firm Hitwise.

At whose expense was this growth? No surprise: Yahoo and Microsoft. Second-place Yahoo had 19.2 percent of the search volume, a drop of 11 percent from its year-earlier volume, while Microsoft accounted for 5.9 percent of the volume, a drop of 32 percent for the year, Hitwise said. Ask.com increased volume 1 percent to a share of 3.8 percent.

But looking at the story month-to-month, Microsoft … Read more

Yahoo has thrown in the towel in Europe for Content Match, an advertising partnership program that let people put Yahoo-selected ads on their Web sites.

"Yahoo Europe is closing Content Match as we do not wish to invest further resources in developing this product," Yahoo said in a statement Wednesday. "We have other products which, in the current climate, are attracting a growing proportion of advertiser spend and we would like to focus our efforts on these. These include Sponsored Search and Display, including Direct Response solutions."

Content Match competes directly with Google's AdSense program. … Read more

Yahoo investors weighed in with cautious optimism Wednesday following the appointment of former Autodesk CEO Carol Bartz as the embattled company's chief executive.

Yahoo, which formally announced Bartz as its new chief executive after the markets closed Tuesday, climbed as high as 3.2 percent during morning trading Wednesday to $12.49 a share, while the broader markets were down.

While noting that Bartz, for the most part, lacks name recognition beyond Silicon Valley and has little experience with media companies and the Internet, investors pointed to her reputation as a strong operator as boding well for Yahoo's … Read more

Carol Bartz, Autodesk's former executive chairman, has replaced Jerry Yang as Yahoo's chief executive.

"She is the exact combination of seasoned technology executive and savvy leader that the board was looking for, and we are thrilled to have attracted such a world-class talent to Yahoo," Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock said in a statement Tuesday. "The board is united in its view that her energetic and decisive leadership style, coupled with a proven track record of driving growth, operational excellence and shareholder value, is exactly what Yahoo needs to get back on a path toward achieving its full potential."

Bartz, 60, spent 14 years as Autodesk's CEO before becoming executive chairman in 2006. At Yahoo, Bartz's challenges will include adapting from a successful but relatively unknown software company to a struggling media company whose Internet properties used by hundreds of millions of people.

In addition, Yahoo announced the departure of President Susan Decker.

"The Board thanks Sue for her service as President, the important contributions she has made to Yahoo!'s development in a variety of roles over the past 8-1/2 years, and her willingness to work with Carol Bartz to ensure a smooth transition. We respect her decision to move on to other challenges and wish her only the best," Bostock said in a statement.

Stay tuned to this post for more details as they come from a news conference at 2:30 p.m. PST. We'll be live-blogging the event.… Read more

Updated 2:09 p.m. PDT to note that Bartz has officially replaced Jerry Yang as CEO.

Carol Bartz, Autodesk's executive chairman and Yahoo's new chief executive, is by most accounts a strong, smart manager familiar with running a large company.

The big question for the successor to outgoing Chief Executive Jerry Yang, though, is how well her experience nurturing growth at a computer-aided design software company will transfer to the job of turning around an embattled media company.

Analysts scrutinizing the situation, though, are more bullish on Bartz than worried about her media chops.

"Bartz (is … Read more

Update at 11:21 a.m. PST with more information on Yahoo's challenges over the past year.

Yahoo has offered the chief executive post to former Autodesk CEO Carol Bartz and she intends to respond to the offer "quickly," said a source familiar with the talks.

Bartz, should she accept the post, would take over the role held by Yahoo's co-founder and embattled CEO Jerry Yang, who came under fire after failed buyout negotiations with Microsoft.

Although Yahoo has not received word that Bartz has accepted the post, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that she will take the position. … Read more

Yodle, a New York-based company that helps small businesses generate leads and power local advertisements, on Monday announced that it has raised a $10 million Series C funding round.

Led by Jafco Ventures, the round was completed with contributions from the Draper Fisher Jurvetson Growth Fund, and previous investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Bessemer Venture Partners.

The reason for raising the money? According to a release, it's because Yodle is growing fast and plans to expand further. At the end of 2008, the company had 250 employees and 5,000 customers, and reported 700 percent revenue growth from 2007.… Read more