To fill the void, Yahoo ( YHOO - news - people )'s board named Tim Morse, its chief financial officer, as interim CEO. Bartz lured Morse away from computer chip maker Altera Corp. ( ALTR - news - people ) two years ago to help her cuts costs. Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., said it is looking for a permanent replacement.
The shake-up was initially reported by the All Things D technology blog.
Bartz's austerity campaign has helped boost Yahoo's earnings, but the company didn't increase its revenue under her leadership at a time when the Internet ad market has been growing.
Bartz's inability to snap Yahoo's financial funk, along with recent setbacks in an online search partnership with Microsoft Corp. ( MSFT - news - people ) and an investment in Chinese Internet giant Alibaba Group, proved to be her downfall.
Yahoo has now replaced three CEOs in a little over four years. During that time, Yahoo has been losing ground in the Internet ad race to online search leader Google Inc. ( GOOG - news - people ) and Facebook even though its website remains among the world's most popular. Her ouster comes with 16 months left on a four-year contract that she signed in January 2009.
Known for her no-nonsense leadership and sometimes gruff language, Bartz arrived at Yahoo as a respected Silicon Valley executive who had won praise for turning around business software maker Autodesk Inc. ( ADSK - news - people ) But she had no previous experience in Internet advertising, the main way that Yahoo makes money.