It looks like Carol Bartz will be taking on the thankless role as new Yahoo CEO.

Sources close to the situation told BoomTown–which had first named the former Autodesk CEO the top pick last week–that Bartz (pictured here) has been approved for the job by the Yahoo board and has accepted it.

The Wall Street Journal is also reporting the move.

The pick is one of the safest Yahoo (YHOO) could have made, which is typical for it, choosing an experienced and strong public company CEO, but one without a lot of experience in advertising or the Web 2.0 Internet.

Sources close to the CEO search said that the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company’s headhunter, Heidrick & Struggles, has told many that Yahoo would also be looking for a strong No. 2 with more Internet and product experience if a CEO with less online background was selected.

Candidates for that position are numerous.

That job is not likely to fall to its current incumbent, Yahoo President Sue Decker, although Bartz could choose to keep Decker, given her experience and depth of knowledge about Yahoo.

But it could be a little odd, too, if Decker stays, since she was also vying for the CEO job and was one of the top internal candidates.

But sources close to the Yahoo board said that many inside and outside the company would have reacted badly to a Decker appointment as CEO, given that she has been No. 2 to outgoing Yahoo CEO and Co-founder Jerry Yang.

The pair have presided over a decline in Yahoo’s business and an even deeper one of its stock.

Sources who have spoken to Decker said it is more likely she will leave the company, and had stayed this long out of loyalty to Yang.

Most controversially, some are concerned about Bartz’s possible closeness to Decker and Yang–Bartz serves on the Cisco (CSCO) board with Yang and the Intel (INTC) board with Decker–seeing the choice as an attempt by Yang to stay in power at Yahoo.

Yahoo’s board has also gotten a lot more rebuffs from outside execs than expected for the top spot, because of its major challenges. While rich in assets and online traffic, the company has suffered over the last year from a range of internal and external troubles.

In a reaction piece to the possibility of making Bartz the CEO of Yahoo I posted last week, the reaction was mixed, with some lauding it as an important move to steady the long troubled company, while others called it problematic for the Yahoo leader not to have a deep Web background.

One thing is sure: Bartz does know tech, unlike former CEO Terry Semel, who hailed from Hollywood. And she also knows how to run a company like clockwork, unlike Yang, who–while inspirational–has had a rocky tenure and has been considered weak in execution.

With an upcoming fourth-quarter results report on Jan. 27 likely to be a disaster, Bartz will have a lot on her plate, including working out a much expected search partnership with Microsoft (MSFT) and deciding what to do about the constipated deal to buy Time Warner (TWX) online unit AOL.

And, oh yes, fix Yahoo’s troubled graphical ad business and weak morale!

Early investor response to Bartz has been muted, at best, despite her solid credentials.

Bartz, 60, is certainly an experienced and very well-regarded tech exec, with the talent to turn things around. She served as chairman, president and CEO for 14 years at the San Rafael, Calif.-based Autodesk, which makes computer-aided design software for engineers.

While there, Bartz presided over huge growth at Autodesk (ADSK), stepping down in April of 2006 to spend more time with her family, and has since served as its executive chairman.

She also put in stints at other big tech companies, including Sun Microsystems (JAVA), Digital Equipment Corporation and 3M (MMM).

According to her resume on Autodesk’s Web site, Bartz holds an honors degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin.

Bartz is also on the boards of a blue chip list of tech companies and organizations, including Intel, Cisco Systems, NetApp (NTAP), and the Foundation for the National Medals of Science and Technology.

She is also exactly the kind of serious, seasoned public company CEO with tech experience whom Yahoo’s board has told investors and others it is looking for, with skills to pull off mergers and think strategically.

But Bartz also was in charge of a more old-school kind of tech company and has less experience in the faster-moving Web environment that prevails now.

Although she toughed it out successfully, Bartz underwent difficult times during the Web 1.0 era, in fact, when investors were worried about Autodesk’s prospects in the online era.

Most critically, Bartz also has less advertising experience, which is Yahoo’s principal business.

In addition, Autodesk is half the size of Yahoo.

Nonetheless, she is well-liked in the tech community and has ties to key companies Yahoo must deal with, including Microsoft.

How did BoomTown forget former Autodesk exec Carol Bartz for Yahoo CEO?

Yahoo certainly hasn’t. According to several sources familiar with the Yahoo (YHOO) search for a new leader to replace Co-founder Jerry Yang, the company is looking hard at the longtime and high-profile Silicon Valley executive (pictured here).

Many I have spoken to inside and outside of Yahoo with knowledge of situation said the company is winnowing down its list to a few internal and external candidates and Bartz is a favorite.

While some speculate that Yahoo could announce a candidate sooner than later, it’s long past when Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock promised some big investors a new and serious leader would be in place.

Some sources close to the board still think Yahoo could still end up opting for one of its own.

If so, the leading choice is most likely board member John Chapple, former Nextel CEO, although sources say he does not want the post now, preferring an outsider for Yahoo CEO. The other board member mentioned is Maggie Wilderotter, a former Microsoft exec.

Whoever gets the job needs to move quickly on a range of actions needed–from deciding the strategy with regard to a search deal with Microsoft (MSFT) to determining whether a long-running merger deal with Time Warner (TWX) online unit AOL should happen.

So far, Yahoo’s board has also gotten a lot more rebuffs from outside execs than expected for the top spot.

This is no surprise, due to the highly difficult task of turning the company around. While rich in assets and online traffic, Yahoo has suffered over the last year from a range of internal and external troubles.

Bartz is certainly an experienced and very well-regarded tech exec, with the talent to turn things around. She served as chairman, president and CEO for 14 years at the San Rafael, Calif.-based company that makes design software.

While there, Bartz presided over huge growth at Autodesk (ADSK), stepping down in April of 2006, and has since served as its executive chairman.

She also put in stints at other big tech companies, including Sun Microsystems (JAVA), Digital Equipment Corporation and 3M (MMM).

More interestingly, Bartz is also on the boards of a blue chip list of companies and organizations, including Intel (INTC), Cisco Systems (CSCO), NetApp (NTAP), and the Foundation for the National Medals of Science and Technology.

Yang is also on the board of Cisco, and Yahoo President Sue Decker is on Intel’s, so Bartz is a well known quantity to Yahoo.

She is also exactly the kind of serious, seasoned public company CEO with tech experience whom Yahoo’s board has told investors and others it is looking for, with skills to pull off mergers and think strategically.

But Bartz also was in charge of a more old-school kind of tech company, and has less experience in the faster-moving Web environment that prevails now.

Although she toughed it out successfully, Bartz underwent difficult times during the Web 1.0 era, in fact, when investors were worried about Autodesk’s prospects in the online era.

Still, Bartz also has less advertising experience, which is Yahoo’s principal business.

Nonetheless, she is well-liked in the tech community and has ties to key companies Yahoo must deal with, including Microsoft.

Whether Bartz herself is interested in taking over a massive overhaul like Yahoo is unclear. I reached out to her for a comment, but have not heard back yet.

According to her resume on Autodesk’s Web site, Bartz holds an honors degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin.

Although we did not raid the offices of Silicon Alley Insider and “steal” Peter Kafka, as the fanciful SAI kingpin Henry Blodget alleges–had it been a raid, BoomTown would have properly hog-tied Blodget so he could not make such spurious allegations!–it is true that SAI’s current managing editor (pictured here) will be coming to work for us at AllThingD.com soon.

Indeed, Walt Mossberg and I, as well as the rest of the ATD team, are thrilled that Peter is coming onboard at the end of October. He will write a daily still-unnamed new media blog from New York City.

Walt and I have long wanted to bring in someone located on the East Coast and away from the echo chamber that Silicon Valley can be, because we both feel the ongoing digital revolution is taking place over a number of key industries all over this country and the world.

Peter was our first choice and has been on my must-read list since I began this blog. He is sharp, witty, confident and has the kind of reporting and writing chops that we think are key to giving readers high-quality, standards-based content they can trust.

With extensive connections across the media, advertising, entertainment and tech sectors, Peter will be doing original reporting, getting scoops, doing interviews, making videos and providing much needed and clear-headed analysis that he is so well known for.

Peter has worked at SAI since mid-2007. The first hire at the start-up tech business analysis site, he has focused on enterprise and beat reporting, as well as breaking news.

Previously, he spent 10 years as a reporter and editor at Forbes and Forbes.com covering media and technology. There he launched two tech columns, coordinated the video staff and represented Forbes on industry panels and in TV appearances for CNN, BBC and CNBC.

Peter was also a staff reporter with City Business in Minneapolis and a staff writer for the Minnesota Real Estate Journal in Bloomington from 1993 to 1997. Earlier, he was a stringer with the Milwaukee Journal and the Milwaukee Sentinel in Madison, Wis.

He holds a bachelor of arts from the University of Wisconsin and resides in Brooklyn, NY.

More importantly, Peter is a newly-minted father, which should give him more practice in prolonged sleep deprivation needed for his blogging.

He will begin at ATD on Oct. 27.

Along with Walt and me, Peter joins senior news editor John Paczkowski, author of the rocking Digital Daily column, who formerly wrote the award-winning blog, “Good Morning Silicon Valley” at the San Jose Mercury News, and Wall Street Journal reporter Katherine Boehret, who writes the most excellent weekly Mossberg Solution column.

We hope you are as thrilled as we are that Peter is coming soon to the ATD site.

(And if you want a little taste of Peter’s work, here’s a post he did yesterday on an appearance by Time Warner’s Jeff Bewkes at the Goldman Sachs media conference and another on Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. [News Corp. is the owner of Dow Jones and of this Web site].)