Carol Bartz fired as Yahoo! chief executive

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Yahoo! fired chief executive Carol Bartz on Tuesday, less than three years after she was brought in to help turn around the struggling Internet company.

Yahoo! said Bartz was being removed "effective immediately" and that chief financial officer Timothy Morse, 42, would serve as interim chief executive while the board of directors searches for a new CEO.

Yahoo! also said it had named an Executive Leadership Council to carry out a "comprehensive strategic review" of the Sunnyvale, California-based company.

"On behalf of the entire board, I want to thank Carol for her service to Yahoo! during a critical time of transition in the company's history, and against a very challenging macro-economic backdrop," Yahoo! chairman Roy Bostock said in a statement.

"The board sees enormous growth opportunities on which Yahoo! can capitalize, and our primary objective is to leverage the company's leadership and current business assets and platforms to execute against these opportunities," Bostock said.

"We have talented teams and tremendous resources behind them and intend to return the company to a path of robust growth and industry-leading innovation," he said.

"We are committed to exploring and evaluating possibilities and opportunities that will put Yahoo! on a trajectory for growth and innovation and deliver value to shareholders," Bostock said.

The 62-year-old Bartz, a former chief executive of business software company Autodesk, sent a brief email to Yahoo! employees announcing her departure.

"I am very sad to tell you that I've just been fired over the phone by Yahoo's Chairman of the Board," said the email obtained by the technology blog AllThingsD.

"It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward."

Bartz took the Yahoo! helm from co-founder Jerry Yang in early 2009, overhauled the management team and drastically cut costs in a shift away from the company's online search roots to becoming a venue for personalized content.

But the Silicon Valley veteran has come under fire for what some say has been a rocky tenure and Yahoo!'s share price has languished.

Morse has served as chief financial officer since July 2009.