Yahoo! has announced that Carol Bartz is to be the new CEO. Yahoo have been searching for a suitable candidate for  two months. Carol Bartz is the former head of Autodesk Inc. and Yahoo hope that she can steer the company in the right direction to improve its chances of competing with Google once again. Bartz, 60 years old, is to take over the role with immediate effect. Yahoo President Susan Decker, who had been considered for the job, will leave the company after a transitional period. Jerry Yang, who co-founded Yahoo in 1994, agreed in November to step down as head of the company. Bartz, CEO of Autodesk from 1992 to 2006, faces the challenge of reviving Yahoo’s growth after the company spurned a $47.5 billion takeover attempt by Microsoft Corp. last year. She also has to learn a new business, Internet advertising, a switch from the design software sold by Autodesk. Yahoo ranks second to Google in Internet searches and online ads. “She was an inoffensive, but largely unexciting candidate, someone who would be a steady hand at the wheel. But investors were hoping for a lot more than that,” said Jeff Lindsay, analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein [...]

“Set up in 2004, BlueLithium provides technology enabling websites to better match adverts with users’ interests. The purchase is the latest in a series of deals by Yahoo as it seeks to regain ground on market leader Google in the web search sector. In June, boss Terry Semel quit after concerns about the firm’s direction. Yahoo’s profits have fallen in each of the past six quarters, prompting new boss Jerry Yang to start work on a “strategic plan” to improve the firm’s performance. He has sought to make Yahoo’s web search functions more attractive to advertisers, recently buying online advertising exchange Right Media for $700m. Mr Yang said the addition of BlueLithium, whose clients include General Motors, to the Yahoo stable would help Yahoo advertisers to maximise their online expenditure. “BlueLithium’s products, technology and team will be an integral part of our drive to build the industry’s leading advertising network,” he said. BlueLithium, which specialises in analysing data on web usage, employs 145 staff at 10 locations in the US. All the leading web search providers have been strengthening their advertising functions in recent months. Microsoft bought aQuantive for $6bn last month while Google’s $3.1bn acquisition of DoubleClick is awaiting [...]