Newly appointed Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz spoke on her first earnings conference call for the company yesterday, and preempted the inevitable questions about the possibility of a Microsoft deal by asking and answering them herself. Here's what she said.

Second, am I planning to immediately sell the search business? I did not arrive here with preconceived notions about anything. I'm still learning about the business, and our integrated search and display model. It's very, very easy from the outside to have a strong opinion about what Yahoo! should or shouldn't do, not just about the search business, but I'm finding out about everything.

Like all of you, my opinions as an outsider were influenced by all the extraordinary attention we received last year. But now as an insider and CEO, it's my job and my responsibility to do what's best for our customers and our shareholders. After a short time on the job, it should be obvious I'm still working my way through that thought process.

Read the full transcript at Seeking Alpha. Bartz went on to call search "a very valuable part of our business," pointing out that its market share "remains almost three times the size of the No. 3 player."

That No. 3 player, of course, is little ol' Microsoft. CEO Steve Ballmer has made it clear, over and over again, that he's no longer interested in buying all of Yahoo. However, the door remains wide open to some sort of search acquisition or partnership that would combine the efforts of the companies and create a more credible rival to Google.