In her first earning call for Yahoo, just-inaugurated CEO Carol Bartz touted the company's "wonderful energy" and vowed to directly address any viability issues Yahoo faces. She also denied any intention to sell Yahoo or any of its services, and did not indicate plans to reopen acquisition talks with Microsoft.

"I would just make a plea that this is a fantastic Internet property and really doesn't deserve everybody trying to pick it and pull it apart," she is quoted as saying.

"This is not a company that needs to be pulled apart and left for the chickens."

Yahoo reported a 2008 Q4 loss of $303 million, or 22 cents per share. In 4Q07, it enjoyed a profit of $206 million, or 15 cents per share. Revenues fell 1% to $1.806 billion, compared with $1.832 billion in 4Q07; and minus traffic acquisition costs, revenue fell 2% to $1.375 billion from the previous year's $1.4 billion.

Core display advertising fell 2% to $506 million from 4Q07; and while remnant advertising continued to grow, it did not offset declines in premium ad dollars, stated CFO Blake Jorgensen.

Acknowledging the company had problems that merit serious prioritizing, Bartz also pointed to the strength of Yahoo's homepage, news, sports and finance sections. She also said it would continue to pursue "new innovations in search," including efforts to build user engagement.

Yahoo reduced Q1 outlook for 2009 to $1.52-$1.72 in gross revenue. Company shares went up 5% to $11.93 after hours, after closing at $11.34, a 1.52% rise, on Tuesday night.

Bartz succeeded founder/former CEO Jerry Yang less than two weeks ago.