Carol Bartz pays the price - but where now for Yahoo?

News today is that Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo has been fired by the board of the company. They clearly have seen a lack of successful change during her tenure and feel the time is ripe to move on. Yahoo's share price rose 6% on the news - and so this has obviously been well received by investors.

Where now though for Yahoo? We have seen them go in the direction of search, then media and then they've moved into content. To show how far their market share has fallen - it is expected that Facebook will overtake them this year in online display advertising for the US.

Bartz's role came amidst major economic troubles, plus increasing competition from the likes of Google & Facebook. This market, which has always had significant change - is one of continuous movement. Yahoo have also failed to take advantage of the major markets in search & social networking in the past few years, and they have been left behind.

The challenge now for Yahoo - formerly a titan of the online world - is where can they go now? They are no longer the major innovator, and they have been left behind by more agile competitors.

The new CEO will certainly have a major job returning this company to its former glory.