Carol Bartz is out as CEO of Yahoo. Her leadership has been sharply criticized for quite some time, and now Yahoo’s board has thrown her out.
The company put out a press release called “Yahoo! Announced Leadership Reorganization” in which it discloses that it has appointed Timothy Morse Interim CEO.
Yahoo also announced the formation of its Executive Leadership Council, which is designed to support Morse and manage Yahoo’s day-to-day operations until a permanent CEO is found.
“The Board sees enormous growth opportunities on which Yahoo! can capitalize, and our primary objective is to leverage the Company’s leadership and current business assets and platforms to execute against these opportunities,” said Roy Bostock, Chairman of Yahoo’s Board. “We have talented teams and tremendous resources behind them and intend to return the Company to a path of robust growth and industry-leading innovation. We are committed to exploring and evaluating possibilities and opportunities that will put Yahoo! on a trajectory for growth and innovation and deliver value to shareholders.”
“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,” Bostock said. “I would also like to express the Board’s appreciation to Tim and thank him for accepting this important role. We have great confidence in his abilities and in those of the other executives who have been named to the Executive Leadership Council.”
Kara Swisher shared a leaked internal memo from Bartz:
Subject: Goodbye
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
There sure have been a lot of big changes at major tech companies lately. Before this of course, Apple named Tim Cook CEO as Steve Jobs stepped down and earlier this year, Google changed CEOs from Eric Schmidt to Larry Page.
According to GlassDoor, Bartz had a 33% approval rating among Yahoo employees. That compares to 97% for Steve Jobs among Apple employees.
