Yahoo Reportedly Ready To Name Yang's SuccessorYahoo Reportedly Ready To Name Yang's Successor

Yahoo is preparing to announce that Carol Bartz, former chief executive of software maker Autodesk, has accepted an offer to lead the Internet company, it was reported Tuesday.

Yahoo wasn't immediately available for comment, but The Wall Street Journal, quoting "people familiar with the situation," reported that Yahoo would name Bartz, but didn't say when.

Bartz would succeed Jerry Yang, co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo, who announced two months ago he was stepping down. Yang's failure to reach an acquisition deal with Microsoft sparked an attempt by activist investor Carl Icahn to replace the Yahoo board. The revolt failed, but Yang was never able to turn around the struggling company.

Bartz, 60, is currently executive chairman of the board of Autodesk, a maker of computer-aided design software. She served as chairman, president, and CEO for 14 years, stepping down in April 2006. During her tenure, the company diversified its product line and increased revenue from $285 million to $1.5 billion, according to the company.

Before joining Autodesk, Bartz was VP of worldwide field operations at Sun Microsystems and an executive officer of the company. Bartz in 2005 was named one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business by Fortune magazine.

Besides sitting on the Autodesk board, Bartz also sits on the board of Cisco with Yang, according to the Journal. She is also a member of the Intel board with Yahoo president Susan Decker, who the newspaper said was also interviewing for the Yahoo job.