Joking aside, she looked at the opportunity and said, “I can actually do this and have fun. I didn’t know exactly what I was walking into with all the attention from the outside, but it was the best thing I’ve ever done other than having my daughter, who was 21 yesterday.”

Enhancing Microsoft

Bartz says the deal with Microsoft isn’t about Yahoo ceding search: it can enhance Microsoft search and instead focus on “what we do best, which is great content and great user experience.”

Carol and Carl

Bartz says when she made the decision to go back to Yahoo people asked the following: Why are you coming back? Why Yahoo? What are going to to do about Microsoft and search and what are you going to do about Carl? (Icahn had gained a board seat at Yahoo and had been agitating for change.) “My friends said, ‘are you friggin’ crazy?'”

Says Bartz: “He’s a very smart man who has a dominant point of view on things. If you listen, really really listen, you can have a relationship. For a shareholder to come in and be that interested, there is some inherent truth to why they’re there. That man can call about 12 times a day. He’s totally capable. “