Late Monday evening the tubs were all a flutter with posts announcing that Carol Bartz has been fired as the CEO of Yahoo! What’s more interesting is that she sent the following email to Yahoo! staff:
—
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
Sent from my iPad
—
A few hours later, Yahoo! sent out a press release announcing that Timothy Morse has been appointed by the Board of Directors as the Interim CEO, he will also continue his current duties as Chief Financial Officer of Yahoo!
Rounding out the new Executive team will be Michael Callahan, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary; Blake Irving, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer; Ross Levinsohn, Executive Vice President, Americas;Rich Riley, Senior Vice President & MD, EMEA Region; and Rose Tsou, Senior Vice President, APAC Region. The Co-founders of Yahoo!, David Filo and Jerry Yang, will each continue as Chief Yahoo and will provide counsel to Tim and the Executive Leadership Council.
The Board will begin a search for a permanent CEO, but the bigger question still remains, what impact will all this have on Yahoo! Canada? Ross Levinsohn will be in town tomorrow for Yahoo! Canada’s 2012 Upfront Launch, so it will be interesting to see how he addresses the situation.