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Though
Yahoo spurned Microsoft's offer to buy the
company last year (and subsequent overtures to buy just
Yahoo's search business) it is starting to look like
Microsoft intends to get Yahoo's search expertise one
employee at a time if necessary. Bloomberg
reported Wednesday that Microsoft has hired away hired
Yahoo executive Larry Heck, who headed Yahoo’s efforts to make Internet-search results more
relevant.
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Heck is at least the
third key search executive that
Microsoft has hired away from Yahoo over the
last 90 days. In November Yahoo VP Sean
Suchter jumped to Microsoft and in an even bigger
coup a month later, Microsoft stole Qi Lu
away to become the president of its entire
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services group.
Microsoft exec Mike McCue told Bloomberg
that Lu’s contacts and reputation are helping
Microsoft’s recruitment efforts, both among
his former Yahoo co-workers and throughout the
industry. |
Bloomberg's Dina Bass
wrote that Microsoft is investing in search technology
to close the gap with Google, which has seven
times more Internet-search traffic, so the company
will have more opportunities to sell online
advertising. Microsoft is currently a distant
third in the space, trailing Yahoo as well as Google. Stock
analyst Matt Rosoff told Bloomberg it is no
surprise to see Yahoo talent defecting to Microsoft's Redmond,
Washington campus. Rosoff said, “If you’re
working in search right now and you see Microsoft’s
budget and compare that with what’s gone on at Yahoo
the last few years, it may make sense to move. They
(Yahoo execs) want to go where the money is.”
Though Microsoft recently announced that it will cut as
many as 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months, the company
is still hiring people for its search division.
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