Neither analyst believes Bartz was brought in to broker a sale of Yahoo, nor do they expect her to implement major changes in technology strategy.

Bartz will take up her new job immediately. She also gets a seat on the Yahoo board.

Bartz was Autodesk's executive board chairman. She previously served as its chairman, president and CEO for 14 years, stepping down in April 2006.

While at the helm, Autodesk diversified its product line and saw its revenue rise from US$285 million to $1.5 billion, according to Autodesk's corporate Web site.

Before joining Autodesk, Bartz worked at Sun Microsystems, where she was vice president of worldwide field operations and an executive officer, and at Digital and 3M.