Carol Bartz Fired as CEO of Yahoo

Yahoo has fired CEO Carol Bartz. Bartz's two-and-a-half-year run ended Tuesday, with 16 months left on the four-year contract she signed in January 2009. The move ends a rocky tenure of failed initiatives and unmet expectations. Bartz, former CEO of Autodesk, was brought in to clean house and streamline operations at the company after it rejected Microsoft?s generous acquisition offer and decided to go it alone. Bartz?s inability to move Yahoo?s stock price is why she is no longer at the helm of one the Internet?s most important and storied companies. If you can?t increase shareholder value, you will not last long as CEO at a publicly traded company. Now it?s up to Jerry Yang and Roy Bostock to find a new CEO who can provide the vision and leadership the struggling company so desperately needs. Although this may come as bad news to Bartz, Yahoo said that Bartz was fired "without cause," meaning she's entitled to a massive severance. Bartz's contract gives her a lump sum of $3 million, plus a pro-rated 2011 bonus that will add an additional $1 million to $2 million to the coffers. But the real payout will come in stock. Bartz has a series of stock grants that cash out immediately upon termination. Yahoo shares were up 4.2% in midday trading Wednesday, one day after Bartz's firing. Ironically, one of the investors who could benefit the most if Yahoo pulls off a post-Bartz turnaround is Bartz herself.