Postcards

Most Powerful Women on CNBC's Squawk Box

I co-hosted CNBC's Squawk Box Thursday morning, when we unveiled Fortune's 2009 Most Powerful Women in Business list--topped by PepsicCo (PEP) CEO Indra Nooyi for the fourth year in a row.

With us on the show: bank-industry analyst Meredith Whitney, No. 39 in Fortune's rankings. She stayed after co-hosting Squawk Box the hour before--and made news, by the way, predicting that home prices will continue to fall and unemployment will go MORE

Most Powerful Women list: How we do it

Who's more powerful--Oprah Winfrey or Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz? Disney (DIS) media boss Anne Sweeney or MTV Networks chief (VIAB) Judy McGrath? Who from Google (GOOG) made the 2009 Fortune Most Powerful Women list?

The new rankings are out. PepsiCo (PEP) CEO Indra Nooyi is No. 1 for the fourth year in a row.

And yes, there is a science to deciding these rankings. Here I talk with CNNMoney MORE

Yahoo CEO Bartz plays with pain

Carol Bartz can handle pain.

In January, she walked into the CEO job at Yahoo (YHOO), unfazed by the company's demoralized workforce, fractured management, and angry investors.

Seven month later, she's taking flak for Yahoo's new search partnership with Microsoft (MSFT).

And did you hear that when she announced that deal--to secure a fighting chance in the lucrative search business against mighty Google (GOOG)--Bartz was recovering from knee-replacement surgery?

Well, you don't know the MORE

Why Microsoft and Yahoo had to do a deal

by Patricia Sellers

"Every key word that every advertiser in every part of the world would put on Google, I want on our system."

That's what Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer declared last month when I interviewed him onstage at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. He also confessed one great regret since he took the helm from Bill Gates a decade ago: "We should have been earlier in search."

So, if you're at all MORE

Top 10 quotes from Brainstorm Tech

by Patricia Sellers and Jessica Shambora

We took a break from posting our daily Power Point--Postcards' quote of the day--last week, but we collected more than a few good ones at Fortune Brainstorm Tech in Pasadena. Here are our 10 favorites,  from the mouths of media moguls, tech titans, Tweeters and more.

"It's not really my thing. I don't go to the dentist. I don't do things that cause me to emote." MORE

Microsoft CEO Ballmer: Open to Yahoo deal

by Patricia Sellers

As speculation ever swirls about Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT) joining forces to give Google (GOOG) a better run for its money in search, one party in the on-and-off  negotiations has been notably evasive this week. "If we ever have a deal with Microsoft, it will be announced publicly and until we do, we have nothing to say," declared Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz at the company's shareholders meeting MORE

Behind Meg Whitman's bid to save California

Here's the new cover of Fortune.

Yes, former eBay (EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman is vying for her next big gig--governor of California--Ronald Reagan-style. She's got a Western look and a simple message: creating jobs, cutting government spending, and improving education. "The three-bucket theory," Whitman calls it, contending that corporate employees and voters as well need clear, memorable messaging from leaders of any kind.

The horse on the cover, Brandy, isn't Whitman's, but MORE

Confidence game: It takes a leader

Are you keeping the faith? Your answer probably depends on whether you have the right leader to look up to.

I've been thinking about leadership a lot lately. For one thing, I read on the front page of today's New York Times that a remarkable portion of America believes in our new president. Sixty-three percent of Americans approve of the way Barack Obama is handling his job, according to a new MORE

Power Point: Bartz isn't rushing to pull Yahoo apart

"This is fantastic Internet property and it really doesn't deserve everybody trying to pick it apart. This is not a company that needs to be pulled apart and left for the chickens. That's my Wisconsin coming through."

-- Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz in Tuesday's fourth-quarter earnings call with investors after the market closed.

Bartz's comments reflect the challenge of taking charge at a onetime tech darling that has been weakened by MORE

This week: Silicon Valley shakeups

Another week of big power shifts. Steve Jobs is the biggest, of course. Hope he recovers and makes it back to Apple (AAPL) in June. As Andy Serwer, Fortune's managing editor and my boss, says, Steve Jobs is the Thomas Edison of our times. He transformed four industries: computers, music, telecom and film. Will any innovator in our lifetimes do better than that?

Jobs also gave the best commencement speech I MORE