Yahooligans! cower! as! COO! was! reportedly! SACKED! by! Mayer!

Yahoo! has refused to deny that its chief operating officer Henrique de Castro was sacked by the Purple Palace's boss Marissa Mayer.

Kara Swisher reported on re/code, citing a leaked internal memo, that Mayer had in fact fired the web company's COO.

Yahoo! revealed on Wednesday that de Castro would leave the biz today – having only arrived from Google about a year ago. However, the company refused to explain why his exit was so sudden.

It announced the move in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing, and confirmed that de Castro would be given severance benefits.

But Mayer's confidential memo to Yahooligans! bluntly shows that the company's COO was dismissed by the chief.

She told them:

During my own reflection, I made the difficult decision that our COO, Henrique de Castro, should leave the company. I appreciate Henrique’s contributions and wish him the best in his future endeavors.

The Register asked Yahoo! about the sacking. It told us: "We aren’t commenting beyond the 8-K." ®