He said that Yahoo directors felt that under Bartz's guidance, Yahoo had made "demonstrable progress", and although there was still a lot of work to be done to deliver more value to shareholders, she and her team had "built a strong foundation."

However, later at that meeting, Bartz got an earful from a stockholder who called for her to be replaced as CEO as soon as possible, accusing her of painting an unrealistically positive image of what he viewed as a deeply troubled company.

On her last day as CEO, Yahoo's stock price closed at $12.91, slightly up from the $12.10 per share at which it closed on Jan. 13, 2009, her first day as CEO.

CFO Tim Morse has been named interim CEO. If a permanent replacement is hired this year, that person will become Yahoo's fourth CEO in the past four years, following Bartz, Yang and Terry Semel, who served as CEO from 2001 until 2007.