Tech Week in Review 9-10-2011

Carol Bartz was fired this week from her job as Yahoo CEO, but she didn’t leave quietly.

In a note sent to Yahoo employees Tuesday, Bartz said the company’s board had fired her. “I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s chairman of the board,” Bartz wrote. “It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward.”

In her first interview after the firing, however, she was a little less diplomatic. “These people fucked me over,” Bartz told Fortune.

Bartz, who in the interim has been replaced by Chief Financial Officer Tim Morse, will receive a severance package topping $10 million, according to regulatory filings. When she took over the CEO role from co-founder Jerry Yang in January 2009, the company was struggling to become more competitive and profitable. One of her first tasks as CEO was a reorganization of Yahoo in an attempt to make the Internet pioneer faster, simpler, and more responsive to those who use its services. But under her leadership Yahoo has continued to founder, never regaining the ground it lost to Web leader Google.

Some, however, believe that the board of directors is to blame for the Bartz flameout and other company failures, and that Bartz was set up to fail. One major Yahoo shareholder wants to see a whole new board of directors at the company.

Others add that, with Bartz out, the time to start selling the company, in pieces or in total, is now.

• Yahoo’s ad challenges: Social, mobile, operational
• Yahoo’s post-Bartz ledger: What new CEO will inherit
• Yahoo, Bartz part ways (roundup)

More headlines

Sprint files suit to block AT&T’s T-Mobile merger

Opposition is building against the acquisition deal that Sprint and other critics say would create a wireless “duopoly” and spell bad news for consumers.
• AT&T and T-Mobile: Wireless megamerger (roundup)
• Sprint offers most data bang for the buck
• Deutsche Telekom: We are entitled to a breakup fee

Yahoo’s future

What should Yahoo do now?

Call Microsoft, ask for a do-over.
Reinvest in search.
Break up and sell off in parts.
Double down on original content.

VOTEView results

SF police launch probe into iPhone search

The San Francisco Police Department is looking into how officers assisted Apple in searching for an iPhone prototype
• Foxconn said to be making 150,000 iPhone 5s a day
• Sushi photo could come from the iPhone 5
• iPhone 5 rumor roundup
• Sprint planning for iPhone 5?
• Sprint iPhone, unlimited data? Not for long

Does Google want to own or organize info?

The deal to acquire restaurant and hotel reviewer Zagat raises questions about Google playing favorites with the information it owns over rival sites.
• Google acquires Zagat for original content
• Korean trustbusters raid Google offices (scoop)

How 9/11 attacks reshaped U.S. privacy debate

The attacks a decade ago may have given us the Patriot Act, Homeland Security, and “don’t touch my junk,” but there are signs that privacy is poised to make a comeback.
• A decade later, public safety still lacks national network
• Can we count on cell networks in disasters?

Amazon and California lawmakers cut sales tax deal

The online retail giant agrees to call off its referendum to repeal a new law in exchange for a one-year grace period from having to collect state sales taxes.
• The Amazon-California tax debacle: We all lose

Solyndra bankruptcy was disaster waiting to happen

Solyndra received a big loan even though it couldn’t keep up with the falling solar costs, but the loan guarantee program is still vital for scaling up new solar technologies.
• Solyndra office searched by FBI
• Solyndra CFO won’t say if solar maker to stay in U.S.