Yahoo! ‘not for sale,’ says co-founder Jerry Yang

Yahoo! is “not for sale,” says the company’s co-founder, director and former chief executive, Jerry Yang.

According to AllThingsD‘s Kara Swisher, Yang made the clarification about the status of the struggling web company during a “prequel” to an “all-hands” meeting with all 13,500 Yahoo! employees, which is set to take place at 11am PST.

Yang’s statement follows Tuesday’s blockbuster news that Yahoo! CEO Cara Bartz was suddenly fired, “over the phone,” and replaced with CFO Tim Morse, who will serve as the Internet giant’s interim chief executive.

In a prepared statement on the matter, Yahoo announced that it is currently in the search for an executive to permanently replace Bartz, a move reportedly reiterated by Yang during today’s preview meeting.

In addition to Bartz’s ousting, the Wall Street Journal cited an anonymous source, who told the paper that Yahoo! “is open to selling itself to the right bidder.” Many took this as confirmation that the company is, in fact, up for sale.

“[That statement is] the equivalent of sticking a FOR SALE sign on the lawn,” wrote Henry Blodget in Business Insider.

In addition the the anonymous tip, other reports indicated that Yahoo! had been hiring advisor firms, like Allen & Co., to help decide its options.

Of course, this is all precluded by Yahoo!’s consistently poor performance, financially. The company’s stock price took a drastic dive during the economic downturn of 2008, and has been unable to regain much ground in the years that have followed.

Yahoo!’s company-wide meeting is just beginning at the time of this writing, so check back for more updates as new information becomes available.