Confirmed: Bartz Out As Yahoo CEO

By Matt McGee

Published: September 6, 2011 at 7:21 pm

Details are very sparse, but All Things Digital is reporting that Carol Bartz’s rocky tenure as Yahoo CEO has ended.

All Things Digital reports that current CFO Tim Morse will take over the CEO spot on an interim basis.

Speculation raged earlier this summer that Bartz’ days were numbered when Yahoo announced weak Q2 financials.

She’ll be remembered for brokering the Yahoo-Microsoft search and ads deal that effectively put Yahoo out of the search engine business (aside from display; Yahoo’s search results have been powered fully by Microsoft).

We’ll have more on this as information becomes available.

Postscript: Yahoo has now confirmed Bartz’ departure. The company has issued a news release saying that Yahoo’s Board of Directors removed her from the position, and appointed Morse as her interim replacement, effective immediately. There’s also a new, six-person Executive Leadership Council that will help Morse with day-to-day management and contribute to “a comprehensive strategic review that the Board has initiated to position the Company for future growth.”

Roy Bostock, Chairman of the Yahoo! Board, said, “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. 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 a related note, Glassdoor — a site where employees can share information and opinions about companies anonymously — says Bartz’ approval rating was at 33% for the 3rd quarter of 2011, and had dropped as low as 24% during Q2 (based on those employees who chose to speak out on the site).

For more background on Bartz’ tenure at Yahoo, see the related articles listed below.

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All Things Digital Board of directors Carol Bartz Chief executive officer Corporate governance Glassdoor Microsoft Roy J. Bostock Tim Morse Yahoo!

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Contributing authors are chosen for their expertise and work under the oversight of the editorial staff. Search Engine Land is owned by Semrush. The contributor was not asked to mention Semrush; the opinions expressed are their own.

About the author

Matt McGee

Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.