Sources at Yahoo have told Kara Swisher of AllThingsD that Carol Bartz is no longer chief executive of the company. Tim Morse will be interim CEO.
Bartz has been with Yahoo since January 2009. According to AllThingsD, Bartz has had a "rocky" tenure. The board informed Bartz of the need for a change earlier today. There have been rumors of Bartz's ouster since at least June.
Yahoo shares were at $12.41 the day Bartz joined the company and closed at $12.51 today, reaching a high over that period of $18.97 in April 2010, according to Yahoo Finance. In after-hours trading, Yahoo shares are up over 6% at 7:42 p.m.
Calls and emails to Yahoo for comment were not returned before press time. Yahoo has confirmed the report to ATD.
Morse, the interim CEO, has been executive vice president and chief financial officer at Yahoo since joining the company in July 2009. Prior to joining Yahoo, Morse was the CFO of Altera Corporation, a semiconductor company, for two years. Morse had previously spent 15 years at GE, rising as high as CFO and general manager of General Electric Plastics, according to his executive profile at Yahoo's company site.
According to her executive profile at Yahoo's company site, before joining in 2009, Bartz was at Autodesk, a design software maker. She had been with the company from 1992 until joining Yahoo, serving as CEO from 1992 to 2006 and executive chairman of the board from 2006 to 2009. She also spent nine years in various positions at Sun Microsystems. She is currently on the board of Cisco Systems.
In an email to employees obtained by ATD, Bartz said "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."
Yahoo has about 13,400 employees worldwide.
Write to Jeremy Greenfield at jeremyg@fins.com
