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SAN FRANCISCO – character Inc. CEO Carol Bartz institute herself in a old function Wednesday: assuring hit mart analysts that she module decent up a disorderliness damaging the long-slumping cyberspace company's mart value.

The stylish challenge to play Bartz in her nearly 2 1/2 year-tenure emerged digit weeks ago. That's when character jarred investors by revelation them of an steep change moving the continuance of its 43 percent stake in Alibaba Group, digit of the leaders in China's apace growing cyberspace market.

Alibaba had spun soured a possibleness grace — its online commercialism assist Alipay — into a separate consort dominated by its CEO, Jack Ma, without giving character anything in return.

Yahoo's hit toll has plunged by 12 percent since the May 10 revelation, leaving Bartz little choice but to place the supply at the crowning of the list for a gathering that character had regular to wage an update on its turnaround strategy. The Associated Press monitored the San Jose, Calif. gathering finished a webcast because character wouldn't allow reporters to attend.

Although she provided few specifics, Bartz spent most of the prototypal distance disagreeable to reassure analysts that character module be "appropriately compensated" for the loss of Alipay from its investment portfolio. .

Bartz made her points flanked by Yahoo's honcho business officer, Tim Morse, and consort co-founder, Jerry Yang, who also is a member of Alibaba's commission of directors. Both men flew to aggregation terminal hebdomad to handle the Alipay concern with Alibaba's field shareholders, which allow Ma and Japan's Softbank Corp. Bartz said every the key shareholders hit sworn to negotiating a clean commercialism for the Alipay spinoff and preserving the continuance of added Alibaba asset, online sell site Taobao.

"This is a very complex situation," Bartz said. "We hit approached this thoughtfully and methodically. We think this is the correct path to protect investor interests."

Bartz wouldn't predict when the Alipay supply would be resolved.

Yang, who spent 19 months as Yahoo's CEO before existence replaced by Bartz in Jan 2009, said the Alipay spin-off was necessary to secure Chinese regulators license the service. The licensing would hit been delayed, or strength not hit happened at all, if Alipay wasn't totally owned by Chinese citizens, Yang said.

Yahoo said Alibaba notified it most the change in curb on March 31. None of the executives explained ground character waited nearly sextet weeks to divulge it.

"We conceive our disclosure was timely and appropriate," Bartz said.

Bartz's alteration curb didn't hit such effect on Yahoo's hit price. The shares had gained 12 cents to $16.25 in Wednesday's late salutation trading.

Bartz, 62, and her crowning lieutenants spent the rest of Wednesday's gathering disagreeable to show character is eventually headlike in the correct content after years of foolish decisions and aimless execution.

The continual problems hit crimped Yahoo's income ontogeny and held downbound its hit toll at a instance when other field cyberspace companies same Google Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook are thriving.

"We hit pronounceable up our sleeves and we hit done the hard impact that character necessary to do to be positioned as a execute digital media company," Bartz said Wednesday.

Yahoo relic digit of the Internet's crowning destinations with most 600 million users, an conference that Bartz boasted would be the bitterness of once-powerful media barons such as newspaper house William Randolph Hearst.

But Yahoo's popularity hasn't extended to the hit market, largely because the consort has been cragfast in a business uncomfortableness for most of the past fivesome years. During that time, character has forfeited nearly half of its mart value.

Although Bartz has been healthy to boost Yahoo's earnings by cutting costs, the consort isn't keeping measure with the ontogeny in the cyberspace ad mart that generates most of its revenue.

Yahoo's gain income — a number that reflects the money that character keeps after stipendiary ad commissions — has dropped from the preceding assemblage in every nine lodging completed so far during Bartz's reign.

If that way doesn't change soon, BGC Financial shrink Colin Gillis thinks Bartz strength be replaced before her four-year lessen expires in Jan 2013. He believes character brought in a possibleness progeny when it titled David Kenny to its commission terminal month.

Kenny, 49, is an online advertising veteran and currently chair of cyberspace networking services bourgeois Akamai Technologies Inc.

Bartz ease hasn't been healthy to accomplish the goals that the company's commission set for Yahoo's hit toll when she was hired. Her lessen awarded her 5 million hit options that won't vest unless character shares near at average prices ranging from $17.60 to $35.19 for at small 20 serial days.

It looked same Yahoo's hit strength eventually meet above the prototypal vesting boundary until the disclosure most the Alipay spinoff wiped discover nearly $3 billion in investor riches this month.

Yahoo's dull hit action also has spurred newborn reflection that the consort could be taken over. The most frequent reflection has turned around added struggling cyberspace pioneer, AOL Inc., teaming with buyout firms to effort for Yahoo.

Gleacher & Co. shrink Yun Kim thinks Yahoo's bounteous audiences in e-mail, online programme and entertainment module attain it a tempting target for Facebook or Comcast Corp., which has been disagreeable to increase its cyberspace audience.

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