Yahoo Names Silicon Valley Veteran as CEO

Yahoo Inc. confirms that it has hired Silicon Valley veteran Carol Bartz as its new chief executive.

Tuesday’s decision ends a two-month search to replace Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang. His short reign as CEO was marred by his refusal to sell Yahoo to Microsoft for $47.5 billion — about $30 billion more than Yahoo is worth now.

Bartz, 60, spent 14 years as the CEO of software maker Autodesk and became its executive chairman in 2006. She previously worked as a top executive at Sun Microsystems.

With a new CEO in place at Yahoo, many analysts believe the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company will renew its attempts to strike a deal with Microsoft.

The selection of Bartz was reported earlier Tuesday by The Wall Street Journal.