My favorite anecdote collected so far about new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz is the one in which she called together two separate groups of execs who were direct reports of former Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and President Sue Decker.

Bartz, several sources recounted, went around the table and asked them one by one what they actually did, making various outspoken comments along the way about management.

Stories like this about Bartz’s take-charge style have been ricocheting through Yahoo as she navigates the troubled company to come up with a plan to revive it.

But of all the various things many employees I have talked to hope she does first is dump the “matrix” organizational structure that many at Yahoo have grown to despise.

Read More »

One of the first things Carol Bartz said when she made her public debut as new Yahoo CEO was that everyone should give the company “some friggin’ breathing room.”

Some heard “frickin’,” while others heard “frackin’.”

Whatever the exact invective Bartz used, the tough talk was presumably designed for maximum impact to impose a definitive I’m-in-charge-here leadership style that had been sorely lacking at Yahoo for a long time.

But she is certainly going to need a lot more than that to convince Wall Street that she can cure what has been ailing Yahoo as it announces what will likely be a dismal fourth-quarter earnings report tomorrow.

Read More »

Here is President Sue Decker’s memo to the Yahoo staff, which BoomTown neglected to post yesterday, what with all the corporate musical chairs going on over there.

As I said in a post earlier today, Decker’s departure was quick and classy, without a lot of the painful dragging on that can happen in these cases.

Therefore, to give Decker a big honking break, I will not do one of my typical snarky memo decodings.

Those I will now save for new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz’s first Yahoo memo.

Read More »

It took a lot of guts for Yahoo President Sue Decker to resign immediately yesterday and without the usual polite waiting period that happens in most major corporate management shifts.

In doing so, Decker left new CEO Carol Bartz with the cleanest slate she could.

It would be nice, then, if the man who was also just as, if not much more, responsible for the disaster that has been Yahoo for too long–Chairman Roy Bostock–would take a clue from Decker and outgoing CEO Jerry Yang and head out the door too.

Read More »

Oh, BoomTown really likes Carol Bartz as Yahoo CEO already.

In Yahoo’s conference call today, she has sternly lectured everyone to give Yahoo some “friggin’ breathing room” and noted that the company “frankly, could use a little management.”

The latter is stating the very obvious, but we like hearing it anyway, and she sounds like she is running the show already.

It’s like watching a digital version of “The Gladiator”!

Here is Boomtown’s live blog of the Yahoo call, starring Carol Bartz as its new CEO.

Read More »

As reported by BoomTown and others, Yahoo has officially selected former Autodesk head Carol Bartz as its next CEO, effective immediately.

In related news, Yahoo President Sue Decker is out, as Bartz also joins the board.

Cue the trumpets and fanfare! All hail the conquering Carol!

Well, maybe not, considering the dire straits Yahoo has been in of late.

But you can read all about it in the official release, while I ferret out the real information about what’s to come next.

Read More »

It looks like Carol Bartz will be taking on the thankless role as new Yahoo CEO.

Sources close to the situation told BoomTown–which had first named the former Autodesk CEO the top pick for the top job at the troubled Internet company last week–that Bartz has been approved for the job by the Yahoo board and has accepted it.

The Wall Street Journal is also reporting the move.

But can the experienced tech exec turn Yahoo around?

Read More »

Following on BoomTown’s report earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal has also named former Autodesk top exec Carol Bartz as a contender for Yahoo CEO in a report today.

Since my post on Wednesday, I have been getting a lot of intense reaction from inside and outside of Yahoo to the idea of an old-line tech CEO–such as Bartz–with little Internet or online advertising experience, taking on the difficult role at Yahoo.

What’s most interesting about the reaction to Bartz is that the kudos and the knocks track very closely.

Read More »

Usually, BoomTown plays the stalker of Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang. But, with an interesting product to show off, this time he invited me and also Walt Mossberg to take an on-the-floor look-see at the company’s new “Connected TV” effort yesterday.

Wading into what has been a longtime dead-end for many tech companies–bringing the Internet to the television–Yahoo has struck a deal with South Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung and other major television makers to put its software in televisions to link them to the Internet.

Read More »

How did BoomTown forget former Autodesk exec Carol Bartz for Yahoo CEO?

Yahoo certainly hasn’t. According to several sources familiar with Yahoo’s search for a new leader to replace Co-founder Jerry Yang, the company is looking hard at the longtime and high-profile Silicon Valley executive.

Bartz is certainly an experienced tech exec and was chairman, president and CEO for 14 years of a company that makes design software. She also serves on the board of Cisco with Yang and on the board of Intel with Yahoo President Sue Decker.

Read More »

With so many more ex-Yahoos out there now, BoomTown put out feelers to a range of them to ask whom they would like to run the company they no longer work for. After all, who better than to pick a new CEO than an ex? The response was swift and varied wildly, depending on which way the ex-Yahoo felt the company should go, from a basic turnaround expert to–drum roll, please–his digital Holiness, Steve Jobs of Apple. No kidding.

Read More »

With Yahoo board Chairman Roy Bostock reportedly assuring investors and others that the company will have a CEO in place by the end of the year, it seems prudent for BoomTown to initiate an official Yahoo CEO Countdown.

After all, this column had a 100-Day No-Sacred-Cows Vision Quest to mark the time that Jerry Yang said he needed to give Yahoo a top-to-bottom look-see when he took over last summer as CEO.

So here’s today’s update: No Peter Chernin and a lot of thorny issues for other candidates.

Read More »

Here’s the internal Yahoo memo from President Sue Decker about the stepping down of Yahoo European head, Toby Coppel, which BoomTown wrote about here.

The departure, which has been in the works for months, is not related to the recent news that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is also relinquishing his job as soon as the company completes its search for another CEO.

His successor will be Rich Riley, who is currently SVP of Europe’s Advertiser & Publisher Group.

Here’s the memo.

Read More »

BoomTown might have been remiss in my post yesterday on top candidates for the Yahoo CEO job, in the wake of news that Jerry Yang was stepping down, by leaving out several key possibilities.

Yesterday’s roster included News Corp.’s Peter Chernin, Google’s Tim Armstrong, Kevin Johnson of Juniper Networks and also two Yahoo board members, among others.

So here is an addendum to my initial list–all of whom are Yahoo outsiders, the likely choice versus more tarnished insiders.

Read More »

Yesterday, after the news got out that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang was stepping down from his job and that a search was on for a new CEO, BoomTown got inundated with reaction from everyone from readers of this blog to Internet players to Yahoo employees.

In fact, my single favorite quote came from one Yahoo staffer: “You can kick this dog, but it still barks.”

Grrrrr…this and some Yahoo myths explored within.

Read More »