[UPDATE: Now it’s officially offical: Here’s Yahoo’s press release on Bartz’s appointment.]
Looks like it’s all but official: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that embattled Web icon Yahoo is going to name Carol Bartz as its new CEO. Bartz, the chairman and former CEO of CAD giant Autodesk, has also spent time at Sun and 3M; she has a terrific reputation in the industry but doesn’t have a background in the Web and media stuff that drives Yahoo’s business. Then again, in eighteen months Yahoo has failed with a media guy (Terry Semel) and its cofounder, who helped invent the Web as we know it (Jerry Yang) in the CEO slot. Maybe it makes sense to try someone who’s simply a solid business executive.
Assuming Bartz is indeed stepping in, another shoe will surely drop: You gotta think that Yahoo will still be forced to sell itself off in chunks or in its entirety, merge with another company, or sharply focus its ambitions. If Bartz has the gig she was presumably hired in part on the strength of whatever future for Yahoo she articulated. Stay tuned…