Business Maverick
Yahoo ex-boss off board after slamming company in interview
Carol Bartz, the Yahoo CEO who was unexpectedly fired last week, has now equally suddenly resigned from her position on the company’s board of directors. But this news will come as no shock to anyone who read her interview in Fortune magazine last week. By REBECCA DAVIS.
Bartz was fired by Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock over the telephone last Tuesday. The CEO had her employment abruptly terminated for not being able to turn around the ailing company within a sufficiently short time. The company has lost valuable market ground to competitors Facebook and Google in recent years, and Bartz was brought in to improve revenue growth.
In Bartz’s view, their timeframes for the turnaround were unrealistic. She also pointed out to Fortune that it was she who negotiated Yahoo’s search partnership with Microsoft, a strategy she says may limit the current growth, but will help the company in the long-term. In the same interview, she told Fortune that the Yahoo board was “trying to show that they’re not the doofuses that they are” and that they “fucked me over”.
Bartz said at the time of her dismissal she intended to remain on the board of directors of the company. On Sunday, however, a spokesperson for the board announced her resignation, “effective immediately”.
Fortune also reported that Bartz had a $10 million “non-disparagement clause” tied to her Yahoo contract which she would have sacrificed through her colourful language in the interview. To quote Fortune: “this could go down as the first time in history that the term ‘doofus’ has cost — or made — anyone a substantial amount of money”. DM
Read more:
- Carol Bartz exclusive: Yahoo “f—ed me over”, in Fortune;
- Carol Bartz resigns from Yahoo board, in Reuters.
Photo: REUTERS