• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, March 2, 2010

Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz told CNBC's Dennis Kneale she would have done the deal with Microsoft for $36 per share if she was the CEO at the time -- but later, during an interview on "Power Lunch" with Jim Goldman, said her response, "Sure," had been an off-the-cuff answer. "I'm not shopping Yahoo today, so there is no price," she said.

Meanwhile, will Yahoo be better off going it alone or as a "trinket on someone else's charm bracelet?" Kneale asked Bartz. She replied, "A trinket, what are you saying? Yahoo isn't a trinket. Yahoo is the bracelet."

Today, on Yahoo's fifteenth anniversary, Bartz would consider selling Yahoo at the "right price," similar to most CEOs. I refer you back to an earlier MediaPost Search Marketing Daily post where I discuss why Microsoft will acquire Yahoo Search.

Although Bartz declined to name an asking price for Yahoo, she did try to convince investors and Wall Street of the company's worth by throwing around a few statistics. For example, Yahoo serves 600 million users monthly worldwide. There are 100 billion messages sent monthly through the system. About 360 million people use Yahoo Mail, and there are 120 million in 10 million Yahoo groups, yet the stock remains undervalued. So if $36 per share isn't the right price, then what is?

Bartz believes the market undervalues Yahoo, though she admitted CEOs don't typically say that. She gets that Yahoo has to earn the right for higher valuations through more customers, as well as larger advertising, revenue and profit. "You're going to see this company kick," she says, (leaving out the word "butt.")

When Kneale asked "what did Google do right that Yahoo did wrong?" Bartz replied, "Google focused solely on search, which was very profitable." Yahoo was already a broader company serving up content and offering email and messenger services. "We aren't a Google," she said. "Forty percent of our business is search and the rest is display advertising, so the comparison with Google is like trying to compare apples and oranges."

With all Yahoo activity, Jim Goldman asked Bartz, what's Wall Street missing? She has had a year to turn the company around, delivering a positive message about the track the company continues on, but the stock hasn't moved much.

Down the road in Santa Clara, Calif., Yahoo's search partner Microsoft had a few words to share at the SMX West conference, where Steve Ballmer gave the keynote. In an on-stage interview, Ballmer told Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan that Microsoft's deal with Yahoo will give Bing an opportunity to build scale.

Bing, which has picked up momentum since launching last year, wants to help people find information quickly, with as few searches as possible, Ballmer said. Some of it is calculation, but understanding more about user intent to find structured data out from unstructured data becomes the key. "There's still a great opportunity to improve relevancy," he said, pointing to Bing Maps as the application he's happiest with.

Ballmer deflected questions about rumors that Microsoft worked with Apple to become the default search engine on Apple's iPhone browser. He said mobile search will continue to become a priority for Microsoft, along with Silverlight, which he estimates sits on between 40% to 50% of the PCs in the world.

Ballmer threw a question out to the audience which no one answered. He looked for feedback on issues related to privacy and search, throwing out his email, steveb@microsoft.com to anyone willing to provide suggestions. "I will promise a 24-hour turnaround," he said laughing.

"Everyone, do that now," Sullivan said, looking at Ballmer. "You may get a few people asking to swap links."