Yahoo’s Bartz sacked

Yahoo Inc.’s board has removed CEO Carol Bartz September 6, two-and-a-half years into her tenure that began in January 2009, after growing impatient with the lack of a turnaround at the once-successful web company.

The move was abrupt, amid a number of competitive and strategic challenges facing Yahoo. Bartz was informed of the board’s decision by phone and was not expecting the change, said a person familiar with the matter.

Independent directors did a study of Yahoo’s assets and performance in the past two weeks and concluded the company was not performing as well as it could, said a person familiar with the matter. The review came after nearly a year of board discussions about Yahoo’s flagging performance, and the independent directors ultimately decided a change at the top was the only way to turn things around, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The board named CFO Tim Morse to be interim CEO while it searches for a replacement for Bartz.

Yahoo is currently bidding to buy video site Hulu LLC and that effort is expected to continue, said another person familiar with the matter.

The departure of the CEO, who had more than a year left on her contract, underscores how much the Internet industry has reordered itself and how difficult it has been for a first-generation web company to fight competition from younger competitors.