Report: Carol Bartz out as Yahoo CEO

07.09.2011

That partnership hasn't paid off as well as Yahoo had hoped. , and its display advertising business, where it historically was a leader, has begun to suffer too.

"It's not a surprise" to see Bartz go, said Greg Sterling, an analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence.

At the company's , a shareholder called Bartz a "lame-duck CEO" and called for her resignation. Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock defended her at the time.

Bartz was widely supported in the beginning. "She was kind of a breath of fresh air for a while," said Sterling. She had a strong track record as CEO of Autodesk and before that as an executive at Sun Microsystems, and had a "no-nonsense" style, Sterling said. She was known for her colorful language and dropped the "F-bomb" at least once during a company earnings call.

Bartz made a number of organizational changes and for a while had the bad economy to blame for Yahoo's lackluster performance, Sterling said. But ultimately she failed to retain some top talent who left the company since she took over. "There were just a ton of great people that came out of there that abandoned ship," he said.