Carol Bartz, a Silicon Valley veteran and former head of software firm Autodesk, was named chief executive of Yahoo last night, ending a two-month search for a new leader of the internet company.
Bartz, 60, replaces Yahoo founder Jerry Yang, who stepped down as CEO on November 18 after a rocky tenure at the helm of the Sunnyvale, California, firm that lasted a little over a year.
'We are very excited to have Carol Bartz leading Yahoo into its next era of growth,' Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock said.
'She is the exact combination of seasoned technology executive and savvy leader that the Board was looking for,' he added.
Yahoo also announced that president Sue Decker had decided to resign and would leave the company after a transitional period. Decker had been seen as a potential candidate for the CEO post.
Yang, who founded Yahoo in 1994 with a Stanford University classmate, intends to remain at Yahoo and the board said his 'iconic stature in the industry make him an invaluable resource for the future'.
Yang, who earned the ire of many Yahoo shareholders last year for rejecting a $47 billion takeover offer from Microsoft, welcomed the choice of Bartz and said he would 'assist her in any way she finds helpful.'
Yahoo has been losing ground on the Internet to companies such as Google, MySpace and Facebook and the economic slowdown has hurt the firm particularly hard as advertisers cut back on spending.
Yang's rejection of Microsoft's $33 a share takeover bid was met with disapproval by many shareholders including billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who led a revolt against Yang and was eventually named to Yahoo!'s board.
Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer has said the software giant remains interested in acquiring Yahoo's search business and analysts said Bartz's appointment could revive talks between the companies.
Adding to Yahoo's woes last year was the rejection by US Justice Department competition regulators of a proposed advertising partnership with Internet search king Google. The deal had been expected to earn Yahoo hundreds of millions of dollars in the first year alone.
