Yahoo Inc. CEO Carol Bartz says she hopes investors growing impatient for her to turn around the slumping Internet company remember how long it took for Steve Jobs to revive Apple Inc.
In a Tuesday meeting to celebrate Yahoo’s 15th anniversary, Bartz reminded reporters that Apple still struggled after Jobs became CEO in 1997. That marked his return to a company he had co-founded two decades earlier.
It wasn’t until Jobs unveiled the iPod in late 2001 that Apple’s profits and stock price began to soar again. Apple has become even more prosperous in the last few years as the company developed ever-sleeker computers and trendy gadgets, such as the iPhone and the iPad, a computer tablet scheduled to hit the market later this month.
Jobs “knew the DNA (at Apple) better than anyone and it took him four years,” Bartz said. “I know people want to see magic things happen (at Yahoo). The magic things happening are deep inside our little system here.”
Yahoo’s stock price has gained nearly 30 percent since Bartz became CEO nearly 14 months ago, even though revenue and earnings have sagged. The shares closed at $15.73 Tuesday, down 6 cents.
Apple’s stock price had climbed by about 50 percent 14 months after Jobs’ returned as CEO. The shares dipped 14 cents Tuesday to close at $208.85. That’s a 37-fold increase from where they stood when Apple named Jobs CEO in September 1997.
Yahoo shareholders will probably be happy if Bartz can push Yahoo’s stock price above $33. That’s what Microsoft Corp. said it would pay to buy Yahoo in its entirety in May 2008 only to withdraw the bid after Yahoo balked at the offer.
Bartz, 61, is working under a four-year contract that expires in early 2013.
The challenges facing Bartz have been compounded by the worst U.S. recession in 70…