Some analysts are predicting that newly-appointed chief executive Carol Bartz will shake-up Yahoo. Veteran Silicon Valley executive Bartz took over the helm of Yahoo last week, vowing to revive the ailing Internet giant and calling on critics to give it room to breathe.

Bartz, 60, replaces Yahoo founder Jerry Yang, who stepped down on November 18 after a rocky tenure as chief executive of the Sunnyvale, California, firm that lasted a little over a year.

Yang, who founded Yahoo in 1994 with Stanford University classmate David Filo, will remain at Yahoo and the board said his "iconic stature in the industry makes him an invaluable resource."

Yahoo has been outshined by Internet-search star Google and stumbling in the wake of a failed courtship with Microsoft, which offered last year to buy Yahoo for nearly $47 billion.

Yang's rejection of Microsoft's 33-dollar-a-share takeover bid was met with disapproval by many shareholders including billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who led a revolt against Yang and was eventually named to Yahoo's board.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said on Thursday that the US software giant remains interested in a search business partnership with Yaho

o and welcomed the appointment of Bartz.

"I've been quite public about the fact that there are advantages for advertisers and consumers, for Microsoft and for Yahoo through a search partnership, and we'd like to do one," Ballmer said. "I know Carol Bartz well from Autodesk days, and I like to see her at the helm of Yahoo. If it's appropriate I'm sure we'll have the right discussions."

Google dominates online search with more than 60 per cent of the market. Yahoo has around 20 per cent while Microsoft is a distant third with under 10 per cent.