????雅虎董事會也可能進行內部提拔，即便這樣也存在風險。辭退巴茨之后，雅虎董事會任命首席財務官蒂姆?莫爾斯暫代CEO一職。但他被扶正的機會微乎其微，因為當初正是巴茨將他招入雅虎。而且，盡管他是公認的成本削減高手，但雅虎利潤的下滑與他也有莫大的干系?？ɡ?斯維什爾在科技博客AllThingsD撰文稱，莫爾斯周三出席雅虎“全體員工大會”時，他的前景便已初露端倪。很明顯，他只能作為公司創始人及前任CEO楊致遠的配角。（楊致遠曾堅決表示，雅虎是“非賣品”，但鑒于雅虎目前的困境，誰還會相信他的話呢？）

????可能性更大的內部候選人是雅虎美洲區執行副總裁羅斯?萊文索恩。他主管雅虎日益衰落的展示廣告業務，以及熱門新聞、體育和財經資產，這些都屬于雅虎最重要的業務。一年前，萊文索恩從專注數字媒體的投資基金Fuse Capital投奔雅虎。在新聞集團擔任高管時，他主持了公司對MySpace的收購，這筆交易后來成了他履歷上的一大敗筆。

????另外一位強勢候選人是新聞集團首席數字官喬納森?米勒。他曾在美國在線擔任CEO長達四年之久，直至2006年才離任。今年早些時候，米勒成功為新聞集團甩掉了MySpace這個包袱，為自己贏得了聲譽。雅虎曾考慮聘用他為公司CEO，但因受制于美國在線前東家時代華納集團（Time Warner）的非競爭條款，最終未能如愿?？紤]到新聞集團目前的狀況，或許八月份才是喬納森?米勒投奔雅虎最佳時機。

????而另外一位候選人——美國在線CEO蒂姆?阿姆斯特朗目前更是焦頭爛額，無暇旁顧。美國在線目前困難重重，蒂姆?阿姆斯特朗不僅要整合公司七零八落的業務，還因為在邁克爾?阿靈頓和著名科技博客TechCrunch一事上搞得一團糟而面臨指責。但如果雅虎與美國在線能夠在某些方面達成合作，或許阿姆斯特朗將有可能執掌雅虎。

????無論如何，雅虎都將經歷一場劇變，但沒人知道它將走向何方。或許它將被收購，或出售主要業務——比如其亞洲業務，包括阿里巴巴和雅虎日本（Yahoo Japan）——并將所得現金用于其他收購。多年以來，人們一直在問：“雅虎到底是家什么性質公司？”或許，這個問題需要留待新任領導人給出一個唯一的、具體的、可信的答案。

????翻譯：劉進龍/喬樹靜

????Yahoo's board could decide to promote from within, though not without risk. In firing Bartz, the board named CFO Tim Morse as interim chief. It seems unlikely he'll be installed permanently since he was hired by Bartz and, though he's well-regarded as a cost-cutter, is also associated with Yahoo's revenue slide. A clue to his prospects might be found in Kara Swisher's description at AllThingsD of Morse's presence at Yahoo's "all-hands" meeting on Wednesday, where he was apparently nothing more than a supporting player to company co-founder and former CEO Jerry Yang. (Yang insisted that Yahoo is "not for sale," but there's little reason to believe him given the company's distress.)

????A more likely internal candidate is Ross Levinsohn, Yahoo's executive vice president for the Americas. He's in charge of Yahoo's faltering display-ad business and its popular news, sports and finance properties -- in other words, Yahoo's most important businesses. Levinsohn came to Yahoo a year ago from Fuse Capital, an investment fund focused on digital media. As a News Corp. executive, he was in charge of that company's acquisition of MySpace, which went on to become a spectacular failure.

????A strong candidate is Jonathan Miller, News Corp.'s chief digital officer. He was CEO of AOL for four years until 2006. Miller won a gold star when he unloaded MySpace from News Corp. earlier this year. He was once a considered for the top Yahoo job, but was blocked by Time Warner, former owner of AOL, because of a noncompete clause. Given all the situation at News Corp., the timing perhaps could be august.

????The timing probably couldn't be worse for another potential candidate, though: Tim Armstrong, CEO of the beleaguered AOL (AOL). Not only is he struggling to make the disparate parts of his company work together, he's also facing heavy criticism for his handling of the mess surrounding Michael Arrington and TechCrunch. Still, if Yahoo and AOL were to partner in some way, Armstrong could come out on top.

????Yahoo has to endure some major changes no matter what, but nobody seems to know what they should be. It could be acquired, or it could sell off major chunks of itself -- perhaps its Asian businesses including Alibaba and Yahoo Japan -- and use the cash to make acquisitions of its own. For years, people have been asking: "What is Yahoo?" Any new leader has to be able to answer that question in a single, concrete, believable phrase.