B-

The One-Year Report Card of Yahoo’s Carol Bartz–Moxie: B+

Kara Swisher in News on February 2, 2010 at 9:15 am PT

You were expecting an A+, right? Because of all the cursing and tough talk and uber-sassy assistant and loyal sidekick, Judy. And especially, the use of elaborate barnyard metaphors from Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz’s growing up in Wisconsin to describe the Internet giant’s current state of affairs. But the colorful exec has been a lot more circumspect than you might realize–more Taylor Swift than Lady Gaga.

The One-Year Report Card of Yahoo’s Carol Bartz–Product Innovation: D From Readers, A From Sheila and C- From BoomTown

Kara Swisher in News on January 20, 2010 at 1:05 am PT

Yesterday, BoomTown asked a question on Twitter about what grade people thought I should give Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz for product innovation, because I was torn about what the grade should be. One main reason: Bartz inherited a company that has been suffering from a serious and chronic case of product constipation, after many years of leading the Web in new and innovative offerings. With every other Web competitor innovating wildly in 2009, the lack of spark from Yahoo has become worrisome.

The One-Year Report Card of Yahoo’s Carol Bartz–Financials: C+

Kara Swisher in News on January 15, 2010 at 11:48 pm PT

Yesterday, BoomTown began grading the performance of Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, after she gave herself a B- for overall performance for the one year since she took over the troubled Internet giant. But I decided to be more specific, splitting the grades into five categories: Management, financials, product innovation, deal-making and moxie. For management, I gave Bartz an A-, which some thought was too generous and others thought should have been an A+. Which means, it was just about right! Today, let’s look at financials–by which I mean Yahoo’s fiscal performance and its stock price. In this regard, Bartz only gets a C++ (it’s a techie joke, get it?).

Yahoo’s Pitch to Advertisers: We Sell Ginormous Ads

Peter Kafka in Media on January 11, 2010 at 8:14 am PT

Another ad from Yahoo to people who buy ads on Yahoo: Look at all the great ads people have bought on Yahoo! But this clip also works as a pretty good survey of advertising across the Web.