Yahoo! names Bartz as the new CEO and the questions start

As Yahoo! named Carol Bartz as their new Chief Executive Officer the markets asked if the former CEO of Autodesk has the right blend of experience to lead the turnaround. Shares of Yahoo fell 3.6 percent after news of Bartz’s hire was reported, but the stock rallied to end the day down just 1 percent at $12.10.

With a tough and fair reputation Bartz was chairman, president and CEO of software company Autodesk for 14 years until she stepped down in April 2006. She led the company from a revenue of $300million to more than $1.5billion with a tenfold increase in share price Yahoo said. She clearly has the metal for the job but the question is does she have enough experience of the fast moving Internet media sector to turn Yahoo! around? I am sure with time that she does, but time is no friend of Yahoo!

GigaOm thinks she does, blogging seven reasons why he thinks she can do it (non of which are likely to impress Wall Street or strike fear in the halls of Microsoft and Google). Erick Schonfeld over at TechCrunch is guessing that she will simply dress the business for sale. My money is with you Erick.