SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo chief executive Carol Bartz found herself in a familiar position Wednesday: assuring stock-market analysts that she will clean up a mess damaging the long-slumping Internet company’s market value.
The latest challenge to confront Bartz in her nearly 2 1/2-year tenure emerged two weeks ago, when Yahoo jarred investors by informing them that Alibaba Group — a leader in China’s Internet market in which Yahoo has a 43 percent stake — had spun off online payment service Alipay into a separate company without giving Yahoo anything in return. Yahoo’s stock price has since plunged by 12 percent.
Bartz said Yahoo will be “appropriately compensated” for the loss of Alipay from its investment portfolio.
“This is a very complex situation,” Bartz said. “We have approached this thoughtfully and methodically. We think this is the right path to protect shareholder interests.”
Yahoo’s net revenue has dropped from the previous year in all nine quarters under Bartz. The Associated Press
