Yahoo fires CEO Bartz

Sep 7, 2011, 0:30 GMT

San Francisco - Struggling online portal Yahoo fired chief executive Carol Bartz, the company announced late Tuesday. Chief financial officer Tim Morse had been named interim CEO.

Internet pioneer Yahoo was one of the online search and directory sites for much of the 1990's but has struggled since 2000 to retain its position as challengers such as Google, Facebook and others command the online ad market. Bartz was the fourth CEO of the company since 2001.

'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,' Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock said.

'On behalf of the entire board, I want to thank Carol for her service to Yahoo during a critical time of transition.'

Bartz's ouster was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, which quoted an email sent by her to everyone in the company.

According to the report, independent directors decided on her ouster after a lengthy study revealed that the company was underperforming. The report said that the company is open to selling itself to the right bidder and is also negotiating to purchase online video site hulu.com.

'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,' Bartz wrote in the email that went out late Tuesday. 'It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward.'

Bartz, 63, took over the company in early 2009 amid intense shareholder resentment of founder and then-CEO Jerry Yang who turned down a 47.5-billion-dollar buyout offer from Microsoft.

The company is now worth about 16.25 billion dollars, according to its closing price at the end of trading Tuesday.

The company's shares soared over 6 per cent in after-hours trading following Bartz's ouster. The stock has risen just 6.7 per cent during her tenure, even as the tech-heavy Nasdaq index moved up 60 per cent in the same period.

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