Though Bartz had been fired as CEO, she still held a seat on the Yahoo! board and in her explosive interview with Fortune Bartz had stated her wishes to remain on the Yahoo! board, saying, “I want to make sure that the employees don’t believe that I’ve abandoned them. I would never abandon them”.
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Despite these wishes, however, in a filing to the SEC, Yahoo! announced Bartz’s resignation from the Yahoo! board of directors.
The filing by Yahoo! stated that Bartz had tendered her resignation from the board a day after the interview with Fortune was published.
Beyond stating her wishes to remain on the board of directors, Bartz spoke fervently on a number of the issues she had with Yahoo! in the Fortune interview.
Bartz explained what had happened in the lead up to her getting fired over the phone by board Chairman Roy Bostock. She also detailed how she had asked Bostock why he didn’t “have the balls to tell me yourself,” rather than relying on a lawyer’s prepared statements.
Memorably, Bartz also said that Yahoo! had “f*cked” her over.
In the interview, Bartz went on to refer to the rest of the board of directors as “doofuses” saying, “The board was so spooked by being cast as the worst board in the country. [in the wake of turning down Microsoft’s US$47-billion takeover bid prior to Bartz joining Yahoo!] now they’re trying to show that they’re not the doofuses that they are”.
It has been reported that the decision to refer to the board as “doofuses” may have resulted in Bartz losing US$10-million as a result of her breaking a non-disparagement clause in her contract.
In the wake of Bartz’s ejection from the leadership of Yahoo!, business news agency Bloomberg has revealed that AOL and Yahoo! may be in early merger talks.
With Bartz gone, the Wall Street Journal reported that investor anger at the of the internet company’s failure to grow has now shifted to Bostock.
