SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo named technology veteran Carol Bartz as its new chief executive Tuesday, bringing in a no-nonsense leader known for developing a clear focus — something that has eluded the struggling Internet company during a three-year slump.

The decision to lure the University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate away from software maker Autodesk ends Yahoo's two-month search to replace co-founder Jerry Yang, who surrendered the CEO reins after potentially lucrative deals with rivals Microsoft and Google both collapsed.

Bartz's appointment could set the stage for Microsoft to renew its efforts to buy Yahoo's Internet search operations as a way of mounting a more serious threat to Google, the market leader. Microsoft had been reluctant to deal with Yang because he rebuffed several previous overtures, including a $47.5 billion offer to buy Yahoo in its entirety last May.

Microsoft subsequently withdrew that bid, valued at $33 per share, and now Yahoo's stock price hovers around $12. Yang had hoped to placate shareholders by using Google's superior technology to sell some of the ads alongside Yahoo's search results, but that idea unraveled in November after federal antitrust regulators threatened to block the deal.

Bartz, 60, a native of Winona, Minn., was inducted into the University of Wisconsin-Madison Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship's Entrepreneur Hall of Fame in 2004. She is "the exact combination of seasoned technology executive and savvy leader that the board was looking for," said Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock.

Investors seemed unsure. Yahoo shares fell 12 cents Tuesday to close at $12.10, then recovered 15 cents in extended trading.

Yahoo's decision to bring in an outsider apparently irked its president, Susan Decker, who also was a candidate for the CEO job. She now plans to resign after a transitional period. Both Decker and Bartz are on Intel's board of directors.

Bartz's track record indicates she will move quickly to build upon Yahoo's strengths while doing her best to shed the weaknesses.

"She is able to see the essence of things because she doesn't spend a lot of time worrying about how people are going to feel," said Nilofer Merchant, a former Autodesk manager who is now CEO of technology consultant Rubicon. "She is driven by doing the best thing for the business."

Forrester Research analyst David Card said Yahoo desperately needs someone to crack the whip after years of drifting aimlessly despite having a vast online audience, which it touts as 500 million people worldwide.

"It's a salvageable company," Card said. "They just need to get their act in gear and make some tough decisions. (Bartz) is also going to have to restore employee morale in the company and make sure everyone is singing from the same handbook."

Bartz spent nearly 17 years at Autodesk, which specializes in making design software for architects and engineers. She was the San Rafael, Calif.-based company's CEO from 1992 until 2006, when she stepped aside to become executive chairwoman.

While Bartz was CEO, Autodesk's annual revenue ballooned from nearly $300 million to $1.5 billion. Perhaps more importantly to Yahoo's long-suffering shareholders, Autodesk's stock price rose by an annual average of nearly 20 percent during Bartz's reign, beating the 10.6 percent annual average for the Standard & Poor's 500 index.

Carol Bartz

Age: 60

Education: Bachelor's degree in computer science, UW-Madison, 1971

Career: CEO of Autodesk from 1992 through 2006, when she became company's executive chairman. Previously worked for 3M Co., Digital Equipment and Sun Microsystems. Serves on the boards of Intel, Cisco Systems, NetApp and the Foundation for the National Medals of Science and Technology.

State Journal reporter Judy Newman contributed to this story.

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