雅虎(Yahoo)已宣布，解除卡罗尔•巴茨(Carol Bartz)首席执行官的职务。此举距巴茨出任这一职位不到三年时间。此前投资者已持续抱怨雅虎股价持续下跌，增长低迷，在亚洲的投资遭遇困难。雅虎是全球访问量最大的网站之一。
雅虎在随后召开的记者招待会上表示，董事会已经任命首席财务官蒂姆•莫斯(Tim Morse)担任临时首席执行官，并在寻找下一个正式的首席执行官。
此举消息一出，投资者就表示了欢迎。在盘后交易中，雅虎股价较收盘价12.91美元上涨逾6%。目前的股价大约相当于巴茨2009年1月加入雅虎时的股价，但远低于2008年微软(Microsoft)提出收购要约时给出的价格。
但是巴茨上任不到一年，就因为与微软达成了一项更有限的合作协议而遭到抨击。在这笔交易中，雅虎使用微软服务提供搜索结果中自动生成的那个部分，这样做虽然节省了开发资金，但也分流了广告收入。
这种复杂的安排未能产生高管们预期的广告收入。与此同时，雅虎用户在其网站上的停留时间，已经远远落后于Facebook和Twitter等更具创新力、
更年轻的公司。
这使得雅虎的展示广告收入也停滞不前，而雅虎在这个领域曾长期占据北美头把交椅。研究公司eMarketer在6月预测，今年Facebook将在这一领域超越雅虎。
雅虎在巴茨任内至少进行了两轮较大规模裁员，其间她试图重新确定雅虎的核心优势，并向广告客户推销高级套餐服务。
巴茨遭受的最后一击，或许是她对雅虎仅剩的最具价值资产中的两项——在雅虎日本(Yahoo Japan)和阿里巴巴集团(Alibaba Group)的少数股权投资——的处置。
迫于股东压力，巴茨先前已经表示，雅虎正在想办法将所持的软银(Softbank)旗下雅虎日本的股份变现，同时避免因为直接出售股权而被客以税收罚金。
虽然关于雅虎日本的谈判是在私下展开，但雅虎与阿里巴巴及其创始人马云的争吵却以令人难堪的方式呈现在公众面前。
中国最大的电子商务公司——阿里巴巴将旗下在线支付公司的控制权转让给一家由马云控股的公司，而没有设定该公司对阿里巴巴的补偿条款。雅虎拥有阿里巴巴的一个董事会席位，但声称事后才得知该项转让交易。这让人质疑这笔交易是否会进一步挤压阿里巴巴的价值。
经过数月谈判，阿里巴巴于7月同意保留支付宝(Alipay)37.5%的股份，也就是说，如果支付宝上市，阿里巴巴将从支付宝获得20亿至60亿美元的补偿，外加知识产权使用费用。
罗尔•巴茨(Carol Bartz)发给Yahoo员工的邮件
Bartz ousted as Yahoo chief executive
In a terse e-mail to employees sent late on Tuesday, Ms Bartz said that she had been ousted “over the phone” in a conversation with Roy Bostock, Yahoo chairman, and that she wished remaining employees luck.
Yahoo said in a subsequent press release that the board had named Tim Morse, chief financial officer, as interim chief executive as it seeks a permanent replacement.
Investors cheered early word of the change, sending Yahoo shares up more than 6 per cent in after-hours trading from a closing price of $12.91. That is about the level they traded at when Ms Bartz joined the company in January 2009 and well below the price offered in a takeover bid from Microsoft the year before.
But Ms Bartz came under fire before her first year was up after negotiating a more limited alliance with Microsoft. In that deal, Yahoo tapped Microsoft to produce the automated part of its search results, saving development money but splitting ad revenue.
The complex arrangement has failed to generate as much advertising revenue as executives had predicted. In the meantime, Yahoo has shown nowhere near the growth in user time spent on its site as more innovative and younger companies, such as Facebook and Twitter.
That has kept display advertising revenue, where Yahoo had long been the top player in North America, hobbled as well. Researcher firm eMarketer predicted in June that Facebook would pass Yahoo in that category this year.
Yahoo had at least two major rounds of job cuts under Ms Bartz as she tried to refocus the company on core strengths and pitch advertisers on premium packages.
The final strike against Ms Bartz may have been her handling of two of Yahoo’s most valuable remaining possessions, minority investments in Yahoo Japan and in Alibaba Group.
Under shareholder pressure, Ms Bartz has said Yahoo is exploring ways to monetise the stake in Softbank’s Japanese Yahoo network without the tax penalty that would come with an outright sale.
But though those talks continue in private, a fight with Alibaba and its founder Jack Ma has played out in an embarrassingly public way.
Alibaba, which is the largest e-commerce company in China, turned over control of its online payments unit to a group run by Mr Ma without establishing terms for the group to compensate Alibaba. Yahoo has a board seat at Alibaba but said it was informed belatedly of the sale, raising questions about whether it could be squeezed out of more Alibiba value.
After months of heated negotiations, Alibaba agreed in July to keep 37.5 per cent of Alipay or receive a payment of between $2bn and $6bn if the payment business goes public, plus royalties.
