Speaking to analysts Wednesday morning, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz said she wants to get back something the struggling Internet company hasn't garnered much of for quite some time: respect.
"Today is the beginning of a journey back to respect," she said.
It won't be easy. The company had a good showing last week when it revealed third-quarter earnings climbed to $186 million from the $54 million it reported a year ago, thanks to cost cutting and the sale of underperforming assets. Yet one of Yahoo!'s most visible attempts at reworking its image, its $100 million ad campaign ("It's all about Y!ou"), has
hardly met with rave reviews.
Nine months as CEO is not really that long when it comes to righting a ship like Yahoo!, and Bartz has made some decisive moves in cutting loose underperforming assets. From Bartz's first day in January, the company's stock has climbed about 6% (though it was down over 3% on the day in afternoon trading Wednesday). But patience is
already running out on some fronts, and Yahoo! will have to prove that it can improve its ad sales above and beyond the bump it gets from a recovering economy. We think Yahoo!'s journey back to respect is likely to be a long one.
- Olaf de Senerpont Domis
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I would like to see Yahoo! turn things around but all signs are negative from the outside looking in.