It’s been a big month for turnover at the top in the tech world. Steve Jobs resigned as CEO at Apple but will continue as chairman. It’s a mess over at AOL as TechCrunch’s founder and editor-in-chief Michael Arrington is being ousted.
However, this news doesn’t come as much of a surprise. AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher is reporting based on information from “sources at the company” that Carol Bartz is no longer the chief executive officer at Yahoo, and that CFO Tim Morse has been named interim CEO.
See also: Yahoo’s Bartz era: The non-stop drama in her own words
Yahoo has not commented publicly yet (see below), nor is there a known reason as to why Bartz has departed. However, it’s not a secret that Yahoo has been flailing the last few years as Google and Bing have surged in the search engine market while Yahoo continues to flounder.
Being a tech heavyweight veteran when hired, Bartz was brought in as CEO in 2009 to replace co-founder and then CEO Jerry Yang after he resigned in 2008. But her tenure has not brought much direction and success for Yahoo in the last few years. Revenue and earnings continue to go up and down, and more towards the latter. Yahoo’s brand has also become fuzzy as Bartz announced a shift towards being a digital media leader with original content earlier this year.
Additionally, Swisher reports that there has been tension during the last few months between Bartz and Yang, who is described as “still a key figure at Yahoo.”
UPDATE: It’s official — well at least based on another report. This time, TechCrunch has chimed in with a note that Bartz sent out to Yahoo employees confirming her departure. Based on the choice of words and brevity of the note, it’s obvious that this was not an amicable parting of ways:
To all,
I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board. It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward.
Carol
Sent from my iPad
UPDATE 2: No one is mincing words today. Now Yahoo has chimed in and confirmed officially that Bartz “has been removed by the Board from her role as Chief Executive Officer.”
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