Yahoo board fires CEO Carol Bartz effective immediately

[Jos]

Yahoo's CEO Carol Bartz has been fired from the Internet company after two and a half years on the job. The executive broke the news herself in a short but blunt email sent to Yahoo’s more than 13,000-person staff:

"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."

As news leaked to media Yahoo released its own press statement announcing a leadership re-organisation and confirming Bartz was to leave the company with immediate effect.

Bartz was hired in early 2009, replacing co-founder Jerry Yang. During her time at the helm she made considerable changes shifting the focus away from its traditional search-orientated roots, to allow it to focus on more personalized content.

Despite changes to the management team, and savings made by cutting jobs, the Board of Directors do not feel she has done enough to turn around the fortunes of the company which has failed to make an impact on crucial segments of the market -- mainly the search and social networking space now dominated by Google and Facebook, respectively.

It seems investors would agree, with shares rising more than 6% after the news broke of her firing, a possible indication they could trade higher on Wall Street when it opens for business later today.

Roy Bostock, chairman of Yahoo's board, commented in the statement: "On behalf of the entire board, I want to thank Carol for her service to Yahoo during a critical time of transition in the company's history, and against a very challenging macro-economic backdrop."

Tim Morse, Yahoo's Chief Financial Officer will take over from Bartz until a replacement is hired.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/45382-yahoo-board-fires-ceo-carol-bartz-effective-immediately.html

 

[Route44]

While I would agree her moves did not help Yahoo but to phone her without facing her is bush league. This at least says to me that a good deal of Yahoo's problems can also be laid squarely on the Board of Directors.

 

[stewi0001]

It's like watching the Pittsburgh Pirates all over again. Except I don't think Yahoo will have much luck gainning market share Google and Facebook.

 

[Wagan8r]

Route44 said:
While I would agree her moves did not help Yahoo but to phone her without facing her is bush league. This at least says to me that a good deal of Yahoo's problems can also be laid squarely on the Board of Directors.

She could have been out-of-town when they made decision.

 

[TomSEA]

Yahoo! is dying on the vine. Google and Facebook are kicking their butts. Just like Microsoft they're now playing catch-up instead of innovating.

I give them about 4 more years and they'll be done no matter who they put in charge.

 

[SammyJames]

"News" stories like these are typically designed to quell investor fears. Nobody in the real world cares. I sure don't.

I use Google for one thing -- to find stuff. If Yahoo! were a better search engine, then I would use Yahoo!. It is really that simple.

 

[SammyJames]

TomSea said:
Yahoo! is dying on the vine. Google and Facebook are kicking their butts. Just like Microsoft they're now playing catch-up instead of innovating.

I give them about 4 more years and they'll be done no matter who they put in charge.

I agree with you about 75% of your commentary. The one thing that I personally disagree with is on Microsoft -- but only on ONE conidtion: If they manage to make Windows 8 work -- meaning that it truly lets you use the same applications on Smartphones, Tablets, Netbooks, Notebooks, and PCs -- then they will quickly dominate the market.

Of course, if they fail to do this adequately, then you may be right too. We'll have to wait until December of 2011 or whatever quarter of 2012 that Win 8 becomes available. We'll have the day of reckoning. I may be wrong too, so don't take my comment personally.

 

[SammyJames]

Ha! I recognized my own foible -- at once telling someone that I "personally" disagree with something, while simultaneously saying "don't take it personally."



The human mind is a funny thing...

 

[TomSEA]

LOL...no worries. And I agree with your Windows 8 comments. I'm not a big portable device user - in fact, don't own any. My phone is a cheapie "pay as you go" phone. But if MS gets Windows 8 to work cross-platform with portable devices, they'll definitely have a winner on their hands.

 

[TechMcgee]

Yawhoo?

 

[TechMcgee]

TomSea said:
LOL...no worries. And I agree with your Windows 8 comments. I'm not a big portable device user - in fact, don't own any. My phone is a cheapie "pay as you go" phone. But if MS gets Windows 8 to work cross-platform with portable devices, they'll definitely have a winner on their hands.

I agree. I would get excited but I still use XP and I ain't moving! :-D

 

[Trillionsin]

Yea, they are doing bad so lets just get rid of that person and blame it all on that one, that'll solve their problems...

 

[Route44]

She could have been out-of-town when they made decision.

So? The BoD needed to "man up" so to speak and have a face to face.

 

[SammyJames]

TomSea said:
LOL...no worries. And I agree with your Windows 8 comments. I'm not a big portable device user - in fact, don't own any. My phone is a cheapie "pay as you go" phone. But if MS gets Windows 8 to work cross-platform with portable devices, they'll definitely have a winner on their hands.

And NOW I agree with you fully. I also don't love the thought (personally) of having twenty gizmos running the same OS -- but on the other hand, I can see why it would be kinda cool. (I own a Verizon dummy phone too. And my Netbook runs Win XP -- so I'm not even batting more than about .500 with my two computers...)

I'm an audio producer, engineer, and musician. My livlihood depends on being able to accept content from any digital media, and being able to export it to the same. If some guy with a tablet, who has been slaving away at some masterpiece that he's been working on and needs some help, he could bring it to me.

If his "masterpiece" was realized on an iPad, it will take three times as much work to convert all of his files into a format that I can work with on my (awesome) PC. But if the same dude has Windows 8, running even a less-than-optimal version of some music software (like Cakewalk or Steinberg) say, as a tablet variant, then we can more easily exchange files.

So -- what you're saying is correct. And I appreciate that you got the meaning of my message. I have great respect for anyone who says the truth -- and you are saying it. My nitpicks are really my own problems which I must confront.



Later.

- Sammy

 

[SammyJames]

And back on-topic -- here's why Yahoo! is failing: People typically gravitate to like about 10 different sites that they visit all-the-time. Some may visit five, some may visit twenty every day. But Yahoo! is no longer a necessary destination for most of us.

Here are my favorite sites to visit daily (to see their home page, and in no particular order):

- This one (Techspot, which I found through Google)
- Google (which is my start page)
- Youtube (to see the latest Britney Spears/Taio Cruz/Rhiaana/Kanye West vids)
- SonicState/news (for news about music production software and hardware)
- CNN (when I want to feel very depressed)
- NewEgg (when I feel like being careless with my money)
- Wikipedia -- to learn what Cicadas are and who died in the entertainment industry three hours ago... et cetera...

and not too many others.

Seriously -- Yahoo! just isn't that good anymore. Their home page is way-too overcrowded with crud to make it a good "Start" site. They gutted AltaVista and removed its best featrues, rendering it all-but-useless. Google reminds me MORE of AltaVista, which USED to be my favorite search engine -- before Yahoo! bought it and dismantled it.

So -- there ya go! Yah -- who?! is about right...

- S

 

[gwailo247]

Sammyjames said:
Seriously -- Yahoo! just isn't that good anymore. Their home page is way-too overcrowded with crud to make it a good "Start" site.

LOL, I still have it as my "Home" page, mostly out of habit I think, although I have the Google start page on another computer.

I wouldn't have found TechSpot if not for the Yahoo page RSS feeds. I read this site for years without posting.

 

[aj_the_kidd]

Route44 said:

She could have been out-of-town when they made decision.

So? The BoD needed to "man up" so to speak and have a face to face.

Agree, CEO is a pretty big position in a company. At least they didn't post it on her Facebook page or whatever the yahoo equivalent is.

Sammyjames said:
Google reminds me MORE of AltaVista, which USED to be my favorite search engine -- before Yahoo! bought it and dismantled it.

Me too, I used to smirk every time someone said that i should use Google instead, funny how things have change.

 

[NTAPRO]

Wouldn't be surprising to me if someone was to relate her firing to sexism.

with shares rising more than 6% after the news broke of her firing,

That's rubbing it in a bit much xD

 

[SammyJames]

Sammyjames said:
Google reminds me MORE of AltaVista, which USED to be my favorite search engine -- before Yahoo! bought it and dismantled it.

AJ_the_kid said:
Me too, I used to smirk every time someone said that i should use Google instead, funny how things have change.

My father is an ex-DECie. He was the first person to tell me about search engines, and which one to use (AltaVista, of course). You're right -- it is quite funny how things have changed.

AltaVista used to have a nice, clean look. Then Yahoo! came along, and AltaVista became this tangle of links and visual noise. Then Google came along and changed everything back to square one.

I remember starting to type in a search query in Google, back in 2008. The query was:

"How do I get a tex --"

and if filled the rest in automatically:

"-t message from Obama."

I changed my start page to Google and never changed it back.

You can choose for yourself what that means. I won't get political here. I'm simply saying that I stick by products and services that help me to do the things that I want to do.

- S

 

[SammyJames]

And sorry -- AJ_the_KIDD -- NOT "kid..."

No disrespect intended, and hope none taken.

- S

 

[treetops]

I like yahoo news, well besides there lack of pictures. And the new popular now feature changed from most popular makes you have to sift through a bunch of paid political commenters to see a few decent comments. Then there is the hassle of trying to see your own comments and the responses.... In your profile where it shows your comments its flooded with you gave xx a thumbs up. There news seems to always be a few days ahead of tv news. Yahoo answers is handy to but bleh I got banned for asking about spare d2 cd keys they are mega sticklers.

I still use the search engine as a alternate to google.

 

[Guest]

Flickr seems too popular for this to be the case.
Unless they sell off flickr.. n__n

 

[Guest]

Yahoo?? What do you use Yahoo for?? I used to use them to do people searches but they kinda went to hell there too, now use Zabasearch. Had some family members that insisted I install the Yahoo chat thingy but it sucked in comparison to Live Messenger... Hummmmm, do we see a pattern with the water swrilling in the toilet bowl??

Carol was probably just hired so the'd have a woman at the helm and get some mileage out of that...