The king is dead, long live the…queen. Yes, after a search, Yahoo has named a woman, Carol Bartz, to replace company co-founder Jerry Yang, who’s stepping down as chief executive after a year of controversy.
It was Yang who turned down Microsoft’s takeover offer of $47.5 billion, worth $33 a share, only to see the price of Yahoo stock tumble to $12. Although Microsoft did return with an offer to buy Yahoo search, no offer has been struck.
His replacement has a long record in Silicon Valley, most recently spending two years as chairman of software maker Autodesk after 14 years with the company. Prior to that, she was at Sun Microsystems for nine years, rising to the number two position there.
Fortune has named her one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business and she’s featured in Barron’s list of the World’s 30 Most Respected CEOs.
Several pundits believe that, once she’s installed, a Microsoft-Yahoo search deal will go through.
