Is Fired Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz a Victim?
Former female CEO of Yahoo, Carol Bartz, was fired on Tuesday and has reacted to the news in a controversial manner that has led some critics to argue she is playing the "victim card."
According to reports, Bartz was fired via cell phone by the Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock. When he finished firing the CEO she told him, “I got it, I got it,” and added, ‘”I thought you were classier.”
Bartz joined the company back in 2009 after having successes in building Autodesk (ADSK).
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However, her time at Yahoo turned out to be a bumpy ride and according to reports she is leaving with a disapproval rating from employees of 33 percent.
Bartz turned to email to announce that she was fired to Yahoo’s 14,000 employees. In her email she said, “I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board. It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward. Carol.”
In the first interview since her dismissal, Bartz told Fortune Magazine on Wednesday, “These people fu***d me over.”
Bartz also called the Yahoo board members "doofuses."
The news on Ms. Bartz came just three weeks after Yahoo Inc.’s chairman said that the company’s board was “unanimously positive” about Ms. Bartz’s tenure.
Bartz’s tough response and use of swearing is provoking a debate on whether the reaction of the former CEO was merited. Some critics are blaming her for playing the victim card, and others are arguing that she is a victim of “corporate Darwinism.”
However, perhaps Bartz's statements were not intended to be victim like. In a 2010 interview to Reuters, Bartz said her use of swearing was simply her employing "honest" language and that it would not be paid much attention to if she were male.
Victim or not, Bartz could be leaving the company with a severance package of around $10.4 million, and only days after Bartz was fired, the hedge fund Third Point LLC bought up shares of Yahoo and demanded that the company reconstitute its board. Third Point legitimated its demands by saying it was ultimately the board, and not Bartz, that was responsible for the company’s hobbling performance over the past few years.
Ironically, Chairman Bostock, who fired Bartz only days ago, was one of the board members of the company that the hedge fund called to resign.
