When NYT asked Carol Bartz of Yahoo why she sold off Yahoo’s search business to Microsoft, here’s what she said:

In a lengthy interview on Friday before departing for a vacation, Ms. Bartz said she sold the search business because Yahoo could no longer continue to match the level of investment Google and Microsoft were making in searching, one of the Web’s most lucrative and technologically complex businesses.

Microsoft has backed its new search engine, Bing, with billions of dollars in infrastructure and marketing investments. So far, the search engine has been well received. While encouraged by some of Bing’s innovations, Ms. Bartz figures that Google will most likely match them soon. “That is the arms race I don’t want to be in,” she said.

Out of the Search Business, Yahoo Shifts Its Focus – NYTimes.com

Asked By: Amit Agarwal [41 ]