In her first public appearance Tuesday since her apotheosis Yahoo's new CEO Carol Bartz laid down terms. If there are going to be talks with Microsoft, they're going to be private, not in the press, a perimeter she's apparently already communicated to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

And Yahoo has to retain contact with the search data it generates to target ads better. It's immaterial who manages it but search and display ads, a sector where Yahoo is currently hurting, are "linked in the minds of the top 200 advertisers," she said.

"We would never de-bone the company" was how she put it.

And it appears that because of the economic Armageddon advertisers are desperate for Yahoo to come up with some novel ideas.

Otherwise Bartz maintains that everything Yahoo's got is up for grabs except its billion-a-day e-mail, news, finance and sales force.

Bartz is thinking about European acquisitions and teaming up with the social networks.

She showed up at a Morgan Stanley Technology Conference.