After being silent all day about the selection of Carol Bartz as its new CEO, Yahoo finally got around to confirming the reports. It also announced that president Sue Decker, who was also vying for the top spot, will resign.

So at least there will be some management transition, with Jerry Yang going back to his founder’s role. For Decker, getting the CEO job was a long shot. She was already basically running Yahoo, and that obviously wasn’t working.

Now we will see whether Bartz can articulate a different strategy for the company, or at least negotiate a better deal with Microsoft (or AOL).

Update: During the conference call, chairman Roy Bostock said that Bartz “is the only person to whom we offered this job.” When the call was handed over to Bartz, she asked some of the right questions, but refused to answer any of them just yet:

Should we do a search deal? Should we divest of certain assets? Where is the business going? I have many ideas on these subjects, but it would be presumptuous of me to discuss them on my first day on the job. So I am not going to.

Gee, that’s a real confidence booster.

And Bartz really doesn’t like it when other people talk about Yahoo’s strategic options. She basically told press, pundits, and everyone else to back off:

It’s been too crazy. People outside Yahoo deciding what Yahoo should do, shouldn’t do. That’s got to stop.

I hope that wasn’t directed at us.