Oh dear, Tuesday wasn’t a really good day for Carol Bartz, who until yesterday, was the CEO of Yahoo Inc. Not now though, as her tenure has been abruptly ended by Chairman Roy Bostock, who fired her over the phone.
It would seem her two-and-a-half year employment with Yahoo Inc perhaps didn’t go as well as she could of hoped. Yahoo has stuggled to increase its market share as it faces stiff competition from the likes of Facebook and Google.
Ms Bartz was hired in early 2009, taking over from co-founder Jerry Yang, and since taking control she has made some quite significant changes including cutting jobs to save money as well as changing the focus of the company from being traditionally search-orientated, to instead showing more personalised content.
CFO Tim Morse will step in as an interim CEO while the company searches for a permanent leader who can take the company forward and spearhead a battle in online advertising and content to rival Google and Facebook.
Yahoo shares jumped 6 percent in after-hours trading on the news of Carol Bartz’s exit, although share prices are quite a considerable way off what they were before she took over from Jerry Yang.
Ms Bartz said in an Email to Yahoo 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.”
Roy Bostock, Yahoo’s chairman said in a 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.”
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