Bartz Fired, Yahoo! Up For Sale… What The Hell Is Going On?

Yesterday, AllThingsD posted Carol Bartz’s letter to everyone at Yahoo! after she was sacked.  Bartz served as President and CEO of Yahoo from January 2009 until yesterday.  Reportedly, Yahoo! Chairman Roy Bostock fired Bartz over the phone, as there was no time to meet in person as both parties were on different ends of the country.

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

The abrupt decision was the result of the board growing impatient with the lack of turnaround at the once highflying web company.  After a year of board discussions regarding Yahoo!’s performance, accompanied by the review made by independent directors which concluded that the company wasn’t performing as well as it could, the board decided that the only way to save the sinking ship was to get rid of the incompetent captain (again).

The board then named Chief Financial Officer Tim Morse as acting CEO while they search for Bartz’s replacement.  The company is said to be forming an executive leadership council to aid Morse perform tasks as CEO until a new one is found.

Yahoo! already went through three CEOs in the span of three years, which will make finding the best replacement harder, as no one would want to man a sinking ship with the expectations of quickly finding ways to revive the company.

Aside from this, unnamed sources stated that Yahoo! Chairman Roy Bostock and fellow director Jerry Yang, Yahoo!’s co-founder, were approached by media executive and former News Corp. President Peter Chernin for a possible takeover.  If Yahoo! is up for sale, this could add another factor to not finding a CEO replacement.

Bostock stated that he wanted to “thank Carol for her service to Yahoo.” The board is “committed to exploring and evaluating possibilities and opportunities that will put Yahoo on a trajectory for growth and innovation and deliver value to shareholders,” he said.

Bartz separation from Yahoo! also became a trending topic on Twitter as some people used this to criticize Yahoo! services such as the Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo! Mail.  Even Snoop Dogg  joined in as he tweeted:

“Im takn over as tha CEO of Yahoo. Need sum of tha Snoop Dogg content ya digg. Nuff Said.” –  @SnoopDogg

Snoop Dogg’s tweet was addressed by Morse:

“@SnoopDogg Haha Snoop Dog, sorry that position is already filled I enjoy listening to your music on @Yahoo_Music available @music.yahoo.com” - @NewCEOofYahoo

Morse is already hard at work as acting CEO, reaching out to people via his Twitter account, asking the people suggestions as to how they can improve their services.

After news of Bartz’s departure, Yahoo!’s shares rose to $13.68, up 6%, on volume of 18.4 million.