Yahoo fires CEO Bartz over the phone

 

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By Stewart Mitchell

Posted on 7 Sep 2011 at 08:39

Yahoo has fired CEO Carol Bartz over the telephone, after failing to reverse the ailing internet company's fortunes.

Company chairman Roy Bostock broke the news in a phone call that brought the curtain down on a two-and-a-half year reign at a company that has struggled to keep pace with Google and Facebook in the crucial online advertising sector.

"I am very sad to tell you that I've just been fired over the phone by Yahoo's chairman of the board,” Bartz told staff in the email sent to all employees and obtained by the Reuters news agency. “It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward."

What is the next step for Yahoo? I'm not sure where it goes right now

In a statement, Yahoo confirmed the decision to oust Bartz and said Timothy Morse would take over as interim CEO as the company looked to capitalise on “enormous growth oportunities”.

The move followed a spate of criticism from investors and stock jumped 6% after the announcement, but analysts questioned where Morse would be able to take a company that appears to be a $16 billion internet behemoth looking for a role since handing over its search operations to Microsoft.

"It's hard to say what direction it is going to head," YCMNet Advisors CEO Michael Yoshikami told Reuters. "What is the next step for Yahoo? It went down the road of search, it went down the road of media, becoming a content company, it went down the road of advertising."

"I'm not sure where it goes right now," he added.