Yahoo removed Carol Bartz from her role as CEO on September 6. Yahoo CFO Tim Morse will serve as interim CEO.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo named Bartz CEO in January 2009. Six months after her appointment, Bartz struck a deal with Microsoft Corp. for the Redmond, Wash.-based company to provide search technology for Yahoo sites in exchange for Yahoo handling relationship premium ad sales for both companies. Microsoft receives 12% of Yahoo’s net search ad revenue as part of the deal.
However, the partnership has yet to perform as planned, Bartz said during Yahoo’s second-quarter earnings call. She said Yahoo experienced a revenue-per-search earnings gap in the first quarter, which it managed to shrink by about one-fifth during the following period. It expects to eliminate the gap by the end of the year, said Bartz.
Yahoo’s quarterly search-advertising revenue has experienced double-digit drops in each of the last three quarters, plummeting 45% year-over-year to $466.7 million during Q2. Second-quarter display advertising revenue grew by 2% compared with the prior year to $523.5 million, but the company’s overall revenue fell to $1.2 billion, a 23% decline year-over-year.
Yahoo referred request for comment to a company statement.
AllThingsD.com first reported Bartz’s ouster on September 6.
