Report: Yahoo's New CEO Ex-Autodesk Chief

The Wall Street Journal

Bartz replaces Jerry Yang, the beleaguered Yahoo co-founder and ex-CEO who finally resigned in November after months of mounting criticism from shareholders.

Yang was subject to the ire of investors, most notably Carl Icahn, after rejecting an unsolicited offer for $44 billion from fierce rival Microsoft last February. After much public and hostile wrangling between Yang and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, the company raised its bid to $47.5 billion, which Yang also turned down. Microsoft finally walked away from the table in May.

Bartz was president and CEO of Autodesk and resigned in 2006 after a 14-year stint. According to Autodesk, Bartz diversified the software company's product line and grew revenues from $285 million to $1.523 billion in fiscal year 2006.

Bartz is currently the company's executive chairman of the board. She also serves on the board of directors at Intel, Cisco and NetApp.

Previously, Bartz was vice president of worldwide field operations and an executive officer at Sun Microsystems. Prior to that, Bartz held various positions in product line and sales management at Digital Equipment and 3M.

The WSJ said that a Yahoo spokesperson declined to comment and that Bartz could not be reached for immediate comment.