Carol Bartz has been fired as CEO of Yahoo

[travelin cat]

Carol Bartz’s tumultuous tenure as the CEO of Yahoo has come to an abrupt end according a report from All Things Digital. Bartz was named CEO of the Internet giant in January 2009 after previously serving as CEO of Autodesk.

[mashable.com...]

[travelin cat]

Mashable has a reprint of her memo regarding her termination:

[mashable.com...]

[lexipixel]

I left a message on her voicemail about three weeks ago, was going to discuss how "we" could save Yahoo. She never called back.... I guess I can stop holding my breath now.

[Leosghost]

Long overdue and possibly too late.

[tedster]

Whether it is a good business move or not, firing anyone over the phone is pretty harsh.

[netmeg]

I predict she runs for office. Some office. Somewhere.

[minnapple]

I tried to quit my last job over the phone, but was put to voice mail. I didn't leave a message, I just left a note on my desk.

[edited by: minnapple at 1:37 am (utc) on Sep 7, 2011]

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

A CEO's job isn't to dismantle a once promising company and hand over control to a rival (Bing). This is too little too late, there is not a whole lot left to salvage besides their great home page and their awesome fantasy sports program.

Fired by phone? That just goes to show you how out of touch the company was, at that level you need to be "in the huddle" with every member, a phone call shouldn't even be a consideration or required. Fire the Chairman next, he's either just as culpable or (obviously) has failed to quarterback the team properly.

edit: on second thought do nothing more, Yahoo!, you won't have the income to support high paid execs soon enough.

[edited by: Sgt_Kickaxe at 1:38 am (utc) on Sep 7, 2011]

[lexipixel]

They could have left a note on her MyYahoo! page, but, like everyone else -- I'm sure she never checks it.

[np2003]

...which CEO will be fired next via Facebook?

[skibum]

Yahoo! Can't pick a CEO worth crap. Semel and Bartz to lead what was once a tech company, not a movie studio and not an Autocad seller but a company that needs to use technology and evolve it to the needs and actions of it's users...Be nice to see a Yahoo! Comeback but they'll probably pick someone even worse next.

[lexipixel]

Yahoo! used to be great (really).

Thinking they had to beat Google was their first mistake.

They were always an "index" more than a search engine -- should have stayed that way.

They also had a few good chomps at being the defacto destination web portal which could have grown into a "social network" -- it looks like they've invested about $3.99 into technology in the past 5 years, (enough for a roll of generic duct tape to hold it together).

Their forums, webmail, and MyYahoo! pages look like development was abandoned in 1999.

Me and a dozen monkey's banging on keyboards could do better than Bartz did... maybe me an a half dozen.

[sem4u]

It is not a huge surprise that she has been fired, but doing it over the phone is a no-no. That is definitely something that needs to be done face to face.

Yahoo has changed to become more social, but now they have no search engine of their own. It does seem that today Yahoo is a dinosaur that is slowly fading away...and may go the way of AOL one day.

[martinibuster]

Yahoo! Can't pick a CEO worth crap.

Amen to that. Semel took home hundreds of millions of dollars while missing and bungling every important opportunity to own the Internet.

[g1smd]

Nobody. Nobody. Nobody is ever worth this amount of money...

When Carol was hired by Yahoo in early 2009 she was paid an annual base salary of $1 million. She was eligible for an annual 400% bonus and received 5,000,000 shares in addition to an equity grant of $18 million of stock (to compensate for the forfeiture of the value of equity grants and post-employment medical coverage from her previous employer). In 2010 Bartz was named “most overpaid” CEO by proxy voting firm Glass-Lewis when she received $47.2 million in compensation.

... especially when several thousand other people get made redundant.

[chrisuk]

They should walk away from Bing especially in markets that have not shifted yet, that has been a financial disaster for those that use the feeds. Read no stability or business bedrock left. Anyone home listening at Y!

[httpwebwitch]

she received $47.2 million in compensation

Wow, did Carol earn more than J.K. Rowling that year?

[wheel]

Nobody. Nobody. Nobody is ever worth this amount of money...

yes, they are, get over that socialist idea. If you're making that much elsewhere - and people do - then that's what they're going to earn if they're working for you.


Not all that earn those incomes are justified, but some are.

[tenerifejim]

yes, they are, get over that socialist idea

Just because it's socialist, doesn't mean it's wrong. By most measures that figure is extraordinary. It is not necessary for people to earn this money. It serves no purpose.

Besides, people aren't 'worth' money. They earn money. There's a difference.

As for Yahoo - here's a question: What IS Yahoo? The next CEO should be able to answer that question before they can take control.

[willybfriendly]

Whether it is a good business move or not, firing anyone over the phone is pretty harsh.

Hahaha.

We once had a general manager that knew she was on thin ice and wouldn't pick up the phone. We had to send one of her subordinates down to her office to tell her she was terminated.

That was harsh....

(Her subordinate got her job;))

[Sierra_Dad]

It is not a huge surprise that she has been fired, but doing it over the phone is a no-no. That is definitely something that needs to be done face to face.

True, but we don't know the full circumstance. Maybe she had been briefed and this was just the final confirmation that the board was about to go public. Maybe she didn't want to go along with the standard line about moving on for the sake of the company and spending more time with family, etc.

Or perhaps. . .

Board: "Carol, could you fit it into your schedule to meet with a few members of the board and our corporate lawyer at headquarters tommorrow?"

Carol: "Could you just cut the crap and tell me whether I'm fired?"

[skibum]

I'm sure her compensation package dictated some of what she did as well. It is a lot easier to cut costs faster than revenue falls for a little while to make the numbers look better.

[physics]

Ding dong the wicked witch...

[lexipixel]

Stock market liked it... YHOO stock up 5.42%.

YHOO $13.61 +0.70 (5.42%), Sept 7, 2011

Then a rumor that the company was for sale, then Jerry Yang said it wasn't... now every Wall Street Monday moring quarterback is talking take-over, break up, sell off --- nothing fuels a dead stock like greed.

Dear Yahoo,

Had Carol returned my call I would have told her how if she would just give Yahoo a 2010 facelift, clean out a few cobwebs, go long on local, and run some "fun" t.v. ads, your company might have a chance. But never mind, I see you're suicidal.

Lexipixel

P.S. - if you decide not to kill yourself, give me a call -- you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Google and WebmasterWorld

[Leosghost]

Ding dong the wicked witch...

I'm saving that line for Maggie T

[tangor]

Not particularly a fan, but Bartz did, after all, have to clean up Yang's mess (and made a dent).

[lexipixel]

Ding dong the wicked witch...

I'm saving that line for Arianna H

[engine]

Carol Bartz To Get $14m [guardian.co.uk]

Well, four days and a $14m golden parachute later, Bartz has stepped down from the Yahoo board. I guess $14m more than compensates for any nagging feeling of commitment that she might have left the company with.

The Wall Street Journal's Amir Efrati claimed the $14m estimate in a tweet that followed a detailed 'what next' story over the weekend.