Yahoo search partner must have 'boatloads of money'

Any partner that wants a piece of Yahoo's search business will need "boatloads of money," according to the company's chief executive executive Carol Bartz.The Yahoo head also revealed that it is talking "a little bit" with Microsoft about a potential partnership.Speaking at the All Things Digital conference on Wednesday, Bartz said the company's array of popular web products, including Yahoo mail and its home page, remain the key assets that will return Yahoo to growth.Since taking the top Yahoo job, Bartz has moved swiftly to revamp the company, cutting jobs, shuttering certain products and reorganising the management structure.Bartz said the company would like to hold on and even increase its roughly 20 per cent share of the US internet search market, but it was not necessary for Yahoo's success."We are positioned as a place where people come to be informed; not just informed through a search, but informed through great content, with great editorial and great integration and a very local feel," Bartz said at the conference taking place north of San Diego.Yahoo is the number two player in the search market behind Google, which had a roughly 64 per cent share of the US search market in April, according to comScore.Bartz, 60, took the reins at Yahoo in January, replacing co-founder Jerry Yang in the wake of Yahoo's rejection of a $47.5 billion (29.85) acquisition bid from software giant Microsoft.Yahoo and Microsoft have recently talked about various partnerships, possibly with Microsoft managing Yahoo's search advertising business and Yahoo handling display ads across Microsoft's websites, according to a source familiar with the situation.Asked if the talks between Yahoo and Microsoft about an Internet search deal continue, Bartz replied "a little bit."Bartz said any deal combining its search efforts with another company would have to meet a specific set of criteria for Yahoo."There's two parties in all this. The other party has to have a boatload of money and the right technology, and give us the right data and so forth. It's that simple," said Bartz.