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Carol Bartz no longer CEO at Yahoo

Summary: After a rocky few years, Carol Bartz is reportedly no longer the chief executive at Yahoo.

Rachel King

By for Between the Lines |

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."

Related:

Topics: Social Enterprise, Apple, CXO

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12 comments
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  • RE: Carol Bartz no longer CEO at Yahoo (report)

    Is next Steve Bummer..?
    loidab
    Reply Vote

    • 400 million Windows 7 installations

      @loidab best selling release of Office to date (office 2010), billion dollar businesses Windows Server, Exchange, winning major contracts in the Cloud/Online business even beating Google at their own game with 365, as BTL notes

      "Yahoo has been flailing the last few years as Google and Bing have surged in the search engine market"

      Notice that part about Bing? So, I don't see how if everything is working so well under Mr. Ballmer especially the come strategy with WP7 the reason would be for firing him. Sorry, but if you don't have anything worthy to contribute in the comments, shutdown your computer, go back to pen and paper and donate all your computers and gadgets to a needy child or stop acting like one.
      adacosta38
      Reply Vote

      • Do you want the numbers?

        The people who want Ballmer to leave are the people who read this chart:

        http://www.google.com//finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1315425600000&chddm=2573562&chls=IntervalBasedLine&q=NASDAQ:MSFT&ntsp=0

        Promises of future riches sound pretty hollow here. I bet that Baidu deal to show Bing for English language search is a fee from Microsoft to Baidu, since Baidu gains nothing by promoting Bing unless Microsoft pay them to do it.
        guihombre
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Carol Bartz no longer CEO at Yahoo (report)

    Wait! Carol Bartz uses an iPad? That's probably why she got fired.
    rwalrond
    Reply Vote

  • About Darned Time

    The rank-and-file at Yahoo! AND shareholders have been pleading for this for some time now. I suppose that the next question is whether or not this was done in time to save the company, given that she's left them utterly lacking in a clear vision, direction, or even an idea of what market in which they are actually trying to compete.
    Whyaylooh
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Carol Bartz no longer CEO at Yahoo (report)

    Probably too little, too late. They should sue Carl Icahn for leading them down the garden path to this disaster.

    It will take a miracle worker to pull Yahoo! back from implosion at this point.
    Michael Martinez
    Reply Vote

    • Ahhh, now I see Icahn's trick, SEC!!

      In the deal he negotiated with Microsoft he said this statement which always bugged me: <br><br>"Microsoft would also be making a substantial equity investment in the remaining company at $19.50 per share, he stated"

      http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2008/07/14/afx5211642.html

      <br><br>Where did that $19.5 number come from???? <br><br><a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2008/05/15/how-icahn-influences-yahoo-without-buying-the-stock/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2008/05/15/how-icahn-influences-yahoo-without-buying-the-stock/</a><br><br>"For instance, on Yahoo, Icahn sold European-style put options on 49 million shares, with a strike price of $19.50 per share and an expiration date of Nov. 5, 2010."<br><br>So now I'm curious who was the third party in the put, if indeed there was a third party. I think the SEC needs to go digging there.
      guihombre
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Carol Bartz no longer CEO at Yahoo (report)

    I remember something similar happening with the HP CEO a few years back. *cough*
    glennd83
    Reply Vote

  • yahoo is failing because

    of it's dealings with M$.
    The Linux Geek
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Carol Bartz no longer CEO at Yahoo (report)

      Yahoo was failing before then as well.

      Or did you forget that they made the deal on the basis of them failing?
      Michael Alan Goff
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Carol Bartz no longer CEO at Yahoo (report)

    I just got a $829.99 iPad2 for only $103.37 and my mom got a $1499.99 HDTV for only $251.92, they are both coming with USPS tomorrow. I would be an idiot to ever pay full retail prices at places like Walmart or Bestbuy. I sold a 37" HDTV to my boss for $600 that I only paid $78.24 for. I use http://bit.ly/grab1002
    charlesreese
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Carol Bartz no longer CEO at Yahoo (report)

    I think they were cowards to fire her over the phone. That shows a lack of true leadership skills from even the board members.
    kennyhargis@...
    Reply Vote
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