Oh Yeah, Yahoo!’s Board Finally Fired CEO Bartz
ADOTAS – Thus ends another chapter in a flailing saga: Yahoo! finally got rid of CEO Carol Bartz. CFO Tim Morse has been named interim CEO.
The unsuspecting Bartz was given her walking papers via phone call by a board of directors that had finally grown tired of Yahoo!’s lack of forward movement. We’re surprised that the board didn’t just wait for her contract to expire, which was in less than a year. We also would have thought her ouster would have come on the heels of Yahoo! second quarter earnings, which showed U.S. display sales taking a dive due to “unforeseen” turnover after a major sales overhaul.
Although Yahoo! lost its spot on top of the online display ad heap to both Facebook and Google before the earnings came out, display was one of Yahoo!’s remaining bright spots, especially as search revenue is still dwindling following the Microsoft deal. The display sales screwup pointed to management being out of control.
Granted, the blunt-tongued — she actually told Mike Arrington to “f*** off” on stage, in contrast to Arianna Huffington who did the equivalent in private — former AutoDesk CEO was dealt a losing hand from the beginning, trying to sort out the bloated beached whale Yahoo had become under former CEO and cofounder Jerry Yang.
Most of her two years was seemed to be spent trimming down the Y! beast, slashing initiatives both liked and disliked — few all that popular, and none of them relating to Yahoo!’s push to simply become a media-focused online portal. There were still glimmers of innovation during her tenure, notably on the front-end of the search offering, but the Search Direct solution still seems like it hasn’t been rolled out to the masses.
We were placing our bets on former Fox Interactive exec Ross Levinsohn, who joined Yahoo! as executive vice president of the Americas in October 2010 following the abrupt departure of Hilary Schneider, as Bartz’s most likely replacement. A few months ago, Yahoo! acquired supply side platform 5to1, which was reportedly light on the technology but featured a bench full of Levinsohn’s former Fox Interactive team. Then Yahoo! seemed to be showing him off to the media following an AdAge interview.
But Mike Shields over at DigiDay makes a good point — since Yahoo! has long been redefining itself as an online media company, the next CEO should be a New Yorker, someone from the media or agency business.
Bartz did one part of her job well, which was trimming the bloat that had accumulated under Yang, but she couldn’t do much more than keep Yahoo! afloat. The former champion of the Internet seas is not a sinking ship, but one stuck in dry dock, waiting on repairs as other luxury lines speed off to undiscovered waters. The bigger fear should be that it rusts too much while being fixed to go back to sea.
Reader Comments.
- Pingback from Too Big to Fail or Too Big to Succeed, Part 2
- Pingback from Is Interclick Yahoo!’s Remnant Revenue Savior?
Leave a Comment
Article Sponsor
More News
Spotlight
Take the Display Advertising Survey for the Chance to Win a Jawbone Jambox!ADOTAS – Industry discussions about cookies, privacy and the impact on display advertising have been frequent — and, in some [...] more...
Latest News
- From the Twitterverse: Gamers Hate On Xbox One May 21st 2013 ADOTAS – Microsoft has unveiled Xbox One, its next-generation entertainment [...] more »
- Study: Xbox Reveal Sparks More Social Buzz than Galaxy S4 and Facebook ‘Phone’ Combined May 21st 2013 ADOTAS — The new Xbox gaming console, which will be [...] more »
- Watch it Live: Xbox Reveal, 5/21 at 1 p.m. EDT/10 a.m. PDT May 21st 2013 ADOTAS – Microsoft will unveil its next generation Xbox today [...] more »
- Brands & the Next Internet Wave: What You Need To Know May 21st 2013 ADOTAS – For brand managers and marketers, the Internet has [...] more »
- Blogshare: Why Tumblr Will Make Yahoo Billions May 21st 2013 ADOTAS (via WordStream) — Here’s why I think Yahoo is [...] more »
- Live Twitter Feed from Internet Week New York May 20th 2013 ADOTAS – This year’s Internet Week New York (#IWNY) will [...] more »
- Today’s Burning Question: Implications of Yahoo’s Tumblr Acquisition? May 20th 2013 ADOTAS – Today we’ve solicited comments from industry leaders in [...] more »
Features
- Brands & the Next Internet Wave: What You Need To Know May 21st 2013
- Blogshare: Why Tumblr Will Make Yahoo Billions May 21st 2013
- Preview: What’s Happening at Internet Week New York 2013 May 20th 2013
- Video from the Westchester Digital Summit May 17th 2013
- Automating Core Processes Can Reduce ‘Little Big Problems’ That Ruin Customer Relationships May 17th 2013
-
Loading ...
Reader Favorites
Classifieds
- Print and Web Manager
- SEO Marketing PPC Specialist
- Marketing Summer Internship at Clean-Tech Educatio
- Service Line Manager - Digital Media
- SEO / SEM Specialist
Recent Comments
- Study: Xbox Reveal Sparks More Social Buzz than Galaxy S4 and Facebook ‘Phone’ Combined: [...] — The new Xbox gaming console, which will be unveiled today, has produced 66,000
- Ben Straley responds to Implications of Yahoo’s Tumblr Acquisition? - Rio SEO Blog: [...] Original article posted here [...]
- New Solution to OpenX OnRamp Shutdown | Adcolt: [...] http://www.adotas.com/2013/02/update-malware-attack-permanently-shuts-down-openx-onramp/ Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:Like Loading... This entry was posted in Uncategorized
- Pinterest Roundup — May 2013 | Technology for Publishing LLC: [...] Early Pinterest Analytics Show Brand Potential [...]
