According to reports the new Yahoo! CEO will be Carol Bartz, the 60 year old former Autodesk chairman. She will replace Jerry Yang, the Yahoo! co-founder who was pretty much forced into resignation late last year following his handling of the Microsoft takeover offer.

Bartz has a good reputation in the industry, with nine years at Sun Microsystems during which time she ended up as the company number two after CEO Scott McNealy. Then came 14 years at Autodesk where she also rose to the top. Indeed, Bartz is one of the 50 most powerful women in business according to Fortune magazine.