Bartz Ouster From Yahoo Comes with a Bad Quarter

The firing of Carol Bartz is sure to bring a spate of speculation involving the sale of Yahoo. But while such rumors have already started, one thing seems certain: Yahoo is not having a good quarter.

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The exterior of Yahoo! corporate headquarters in Santa Clara, California.

In fact, people close to the company tell me that while CEO Bartz's departure was long in coming, the board may have been pushed to action now because of the poor performance during the quarter and the expectation that it will continue into the fourth quarter.

If display advertising is down at Yahoo, as seems likely, one question is whether it’s purely Yahoo’s issue or one for the entire industry.

That’s still to be answered, though given the dysfunction within the company it’s safe to assume it is Yahoo specific.

As for a potential takeover, while it seems likely that private equity firms will sniff around to see if a deal can get done, given the tangle of ownership involving its Asian assets, it certainly won’t be easy to get those monetized.

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