Yahoo! Getting some Botox

Carol Bartz led Autodesk for 14 years and has close ties with Jerry Yang and Susan Decker (the current Yahoo President). The Wall Street Journal has confirmed she's accepted an offer to become the new CEO of Yahoo! Autodesk is considered a legacy software company and one that really had nothing to do with the Internet era or Web 2.0. Some industry observers and bloggers are already pointing out she knows nothing about the web, she won't last long and her photo is a glamour shot to hide her 60 year age. Oh well, so what, no one complained about Greta Van Susteren. I think they are all missing the point.  As I've stated here before, Yahoo needs to package itself up for sale and Autodesk is no stranger to M&A. Under Carol's watch, they completed 19 acquisitions between 1997 and 2005.  I see this management change opening up discussions with Microsoft. I think she brings the toughness Yahoo needs right now. At minimum the company will most likely be broken apart as they try to seek value and extract the growth engines that are left.