Carol Bartz officially out as Yahoo CEO
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Carol Bartz is reportedly out as Yahoo’s president and chief executive.
Bartz, who took over at Yahoo in January 2009, has had a tenure of cost cutting measures and layoffs that sought to reverse declining revenue at the online company. But Bartz’s efforts were met with vocal investor criticism, and now it seems she won’t be finishing her four-year contract with Yahoo.
According to the website TechCrunch, Bartz announced her departure to Yahoo employees in an email tapped out on her Apple iPad that read:
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
Yahoo Chief Financial Officer Timothy Morse has been named interim CEO, according to a report from the site All Things D, which first reported Bartz’s ouster.
Before heading to Yahoo, Bartz was a 14-year-CEO at design software firm Autodesk, where she oversaw revenue that rose from $300 million to more than $1.5 billion.
[Updated 5:23 p.m.: Yahoo has confirmed that Carol Bartz is officially out as its president and CEO and Timothy Morse is the company’s interim CEO. Yahoo described the move as a ‘leadership reorganization’ in a statement.
Yahoo also announced the formation of an ‘Executive Leadership Council’ made up of other company executives that is ‘tasked with supporting Morse in managing the Company’s day-to-day operations until a permanent chief executive is appointed.’
The leadership council will also help Morse conduct a ‘comprehensive strategic review that the Board has initiated to position the Company for future growth,’ Yahoo said.
Roy Bostock, Yahoo’s chairman, in the company’s statement thanked Bartz ‘for her service to Yahoo! during a critical time of transition in the Company’s history, and against a very challenging macro-economic backdrop.’
While interim chief executive, Morse will remain Yahoo’s chief financial officer, Yahoo said.
Yahoo’s board, meanwhile, is undergoing a search for a permanent CEO.]
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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles