14 DAY TRIAL // The latest Yahoo drama is still unfolding. After unceremoniously firing CEO Carol Bartz, the company is desperately looking for a direction and a strategy.
What it's not looking for is a new CEO, apparently, since the company wants to determine what is the best path to go forward and will only then choose a CEO that can lead it down that path.
Meanwhile, Bartz has resigned from her position on the Yahoo board, where she still held a seat despite her being fired as CEO.
Initially, she said she intended to hold on to the seat, but resigned on Friday, after being obligated to do so.
What's more, some of her comments regarding the board from last week, which were characteristically frank and 'colorful,' may have cost her $10 million in severance pay.
Bartz was fired as the head of Yahoo after 32 months on the job last week. Yahoo's poor performance in that time as the main culprit and, with no sign of a turn-around, the Yahoo board got tired of waiting.
Bartz was fired over the phone, something she was quick to point out. And she didn't have kind words for the board, which she called a bunch of "doofuses" in an email to employees. She had stronger words for them in a interview last week.
If these remarks are seen as a violation of the non-disparagement clause in her contract, which the board put in since they knew her reputation for not mincing words, her severance payment could be significantly diminished.
Even so, she is said to get at least $10 million, perhaps even $14 million as her good-bye present.
But the board has bigger problems than Bartz right now. After doing what many people have said needed to be done for quite a while, firing Bartz, the board is now under scrutiny from investors, big and small, who are questioning the board's competence.
Things like the fact that it took 32 months for the board to fire Bartz are being brought up and the refusal to accept Microsoft's very generous $45 billion take over offer from a few years back still comes back to haunt the board.