Carol Bartz ousted as Yahoo searches for new CEO

AllThingsD reports that Yahoo's board has fired Carol Bartz as its CEO, marking the end of a rocky 30 month period under the former Autodesk leader. At the time of the appointment Bartz came across as a no-nonsense leader who's out to make sweeping changes into how the company is run. A year into her role, it didn't seem like anything was changing. More than two years after her appointment, the board has had enough.

While Yahoo began as a web directory, it has been unclear in recent years as to what the company wants to become. Aside from Flickr, startups that it had acquired had mostly vanished or been fully absorbed with little significance among other more popular web properties. Even Flickr has been overshadowed by Facebook and Instagram. Yahoo's own ventures to other web services have mostly been complete failures.

The strongest of Yahoo's stable is actually made up of its news properties but the company doesn't seem to recognize that enough to act on affirming that position or using that as a spearhead for the company's direction. While during Bartz's leadership, it had acquired Associated Content, a citizen journalism site of some sorts, it was considered as scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Bartz herself confirmed her firing from Yahoo through an email to the company.

Bartz's email:

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. It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward. Carol

A short while ago Yahoo put out an official release about the immediate reorganization. In addition to the ouster of Bartz, Yahoo has created what it calls Executive Leadership Council whose job is to assist CFO Tim Morse as interim CEO in managing daily operations until a permanent CEO is appointed.

Members of the Executive Council consist of Michael Callahan, Blake Irving, Ross Levinsohn, Rich Riley, and Rose Tsou. Each one holds an executive role at Yahoo's global operations. Yahoo's co-funders David Filo and Jerry Yang will also provide assistance and counsel to Morse.

The changes take effect immediately.