The end of Yahoo?

Stiff competition, a lack of direction and falling profits pose major questions about whether Yahoo has a future, John Hearne reports

AT 6.06pm on Sept 6 last, Yahoo chief executive Carol Bartz put in a scheduled call to chairman of the board Roy Bostock.

When he came on the line, he began reading a prepared statement, the import of which was very simple. You’re fired. In the hours that followed, the press received a carefully worded statement from Bostock, in which he thanked Bartz for her service to the company “against a very challenging macro-economic backdrop”.