Fire Alarm Companies

Bartz, a high-profile former chief executive of Silicon Valley software company Autodesk, had a reputation as a fierce manager with a proclivity for swearing. She had few fans inside the company as she slashed staffing: the jobs and career site Glassdoor found that her approval rating among current and former Yahoo staff was only 33% in the most recent quarter, down from around 54%. By contrast when Jerry Yang, her predecessor, left he had a 43% approval rating. The average for chiefs on the site is 62%.

Though the stock jumped at the news of Bartz's departure, rising by 7% and adding $1bn to its value, the mood inside the company, where Bartz had found little favour, was barely leavened. And outside, analysts were unimpressed by the temporary replacement of Bartz with Morse, whom she recruited from computer maker Altera when she joined. "We think this is the right move, but sadly a year too late - Yahoo's business has already been damaged," Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry wrote in a note to clients. "Both Carol and Tim should have been fired together as they both have damaged Yahoo's business and repairing it will be extremely difficult," the analyst added.