Microsoft announced the hire of former ten-year Yahoo exec Dr. Qi Lu today as President of their Online Services Group. He’ll report directly to CEO Steve Ballmer.
Here’s the email Ballmer sent to all Microsoft staff forty minutes ago:
From: Steve Ballmer
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2008 1:39 PM
To: Microsoft – All Employees (QBDG)
Subject: New Leader of Online Services GroupSearch, advertising and online services are critical to Microsoft’s long-term strategy. To succeed, we need the right talent. Today, I’m pleased to announce that Qi Lu will join Microsoft as president of our Online Services Group. Qi will oversee all efforts in search, our online advertising platform, and all of our online information and communications services. Qi will join Microsoft on Jan. 5 and report to me.
Qi is one of the most respected technical minds in the industry. He comes to Microsoft after 10 years at Yahoo, where he most recently served as executive vice president of engineering for all of Yahoo’s search and advertising development efforts. Before joining Yahoo, Qi was a researcher at IBM’s Almaden Research Center. He has a doctorate in computer science from Carnegie Mellon, and he holds 20 U.S. patents.
Qi’s combination of deep technical expertise, proven leadership capability and broad business knowledge is rare in our industry. There is no one better qualified to guide our work to reinvent search and online advertising.
While I’m excited that Qi is joining Microsoft, I’m sorry to share the news that Brian McAndrews has decided to transition out of the company. Brian came to us with the acquisition of aQuantive in 2007. Since then, he has helped build a world-class business in online advertising that provides a solid foundation for future growth. I have great respect for the important contributions Brian has made to Microsoft, and I wish him the very best in the future.
On Monday at 4 p.m. Pacific Time, Qi will join me at Café RedWest for an Employee Town Hall. I encourage you to attend or to watch the webcast. If you have questions for Qi or me, please send them in advance to and we’ll try to answer as many as possible.
Steve
buh-bye yahoo!
Congrats to Dr. Lu!
Yahoo is a sinking ship. They should have taken the $31/share offer. Sue Decker needs to be fired for her role in that failed process.
Thank you Captain Obvious
once the key technical talent is gone, you’re roadkill.
Congrats to Dr. Lu!
BIG BIG promotion!
Great score for Microsoft and Qi.
Well, probably a good thing MS didn’t buy Yahoo – seeing they can now pick-up the Yahoo talents and hopefully build-up something new and powerful – much cheaper.
Fingers crossed; Google is getting big – and competition is good.
Massive promotion for Qi. Smart guy though. Deserves it!
Great! Congrats!
I heart Qi Lu. He’s so smart and was one of the hardest working people at yahoo. I dont think he sleeps!
Only the Citi never sleeps.
obviously the senior mgmt of citi sleeps well
This is quite a big step up but from comments above and general thoughts about Li, these really looks like an inspired choice for the Microsoft culture.
Time will tell though
Since when is holding 20 patents something to brag about?
When you have none. And when people are making money from patents. Other than those, patents sux dack.
They should have hired Ash Patel from Yahoo!. That way, Yahoo! would still have a chance to survive… Congrats to Qi Lu, though.
Companies are meant to serve their own interests first, so why would Microsoft hire a presumably lower-performing employee from a company (Yahoo!) over a superior one (Qi Lu?) That would make no sense.
pretty sure that was sarcasm
This is a huge coup for Microsoft. I had the honor of working with Qi when he first joined Yahoo! Nobody works harder, cares more about winning AND can have as big an impact on an organization as Qi. We will look back on this move by Balmer as his crowning achievement. Go long on MSFT
Well, I guess if you can’t buy the whole company – you can simply hire the best people away and rebuild it your way. Great strategy and great opportunity for all those talented Yahoo! people.
Nice article – this post is more about trying out Facebook Connect though
Same as I do.
=)
As am I.
if you cant buy yahoo then just buy the brains
peep this blog post. I got a dude bragging about getting a job with Microsoft soon in their internet ad department in Atlanta…
http://www.shaw...wry.com/?p=2048
======WWW.MIXEDLOVING.COM=====
Welcome to the first, largest and most-trusted Interracial Dating Site in the world. This is the best place for looking for interracial dating relationship or marriage. We bring together interracial-dating minded singles from all races, ethnicities and cultures, whether they are in your own neighborhood or around the world.
…..Now , if you registered, please come back after 24 hours and there will be extra surprises for you, my friends.
Is this a signal that Microsoft will not buy Yahoo anymore? I guess so.
Second your thought!
Congrats Qi,
It will be as much an honor to compete with you as it was to work with you. Do us all proud!
For sure some recruiter just got a huge fee for this too haha. Congrats to Lu and to Microsoft though. Hopefully they’ll finally be able to push Google like they’ve been saying they’ve wanted to for years.
Peter
http://www.thewebwar.com
Smart of you microsoft!
The Empire (MSFT) strikes back again.
Watch out Google a war is coming.
Good for Microsoft. (Can’t believe I actually said that. Lol.)
The only people who are losing from this is Yahoo!. As I quote from someone who has said that above (In the comments area), Yahoo! really should have agreed to that.
Talent is good….I think Microsoft has all the talent and money than any other company. Winning over in the market place is beyond any of these two.
Nice.
I kinda figure a Chinese would do this. They are known to backstab companies they used to work for. Lu is a fine example of a typical Chinese.
As a yahoo employee, Lu, we don’t think you’re that good. If you were, we wouldn’t have been in this kind of trouble.
This is an unspeakably racist remark. It must be removed immediately.
I kinda figure a typical racist would say like this. Shame on you Michael.
This comment is so outrageously racist and stupid that it made me laugh.
Shame on you, the sheep named Michael.
You need a reality check.
Michael, you can go to hell. Your kind deserve death.
Hell? Death? Mao killed you by the hundreds of millions. Historically, the typical Chinese response to opposition is death. The fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree, Caroline.
“Hundreds of millions” if you include all the people starved to death. All the imprisoned. All the lives ruined. All the minds made to submit. All the hearts broken. All the families separated. There are some negative qualities which may be typical of the Chinese. I don’t know what they are, but maybe you can enlighten us. Are the Chinese loyal? Do they like to gamble? Do they drink? Are Chinese men faithful to their wives?
Congrat to Lu! This is a huge opportunity or him and Microsoft. A tough time may be good for companies like MSFT which have deep pocket.
if this guy is so good why does yahoo suck ?, give me a break nothing is going to change at MS.
MS has some really talented people in the field of Search but MS doesnt know how to use these people properly.
Mr Qi may have got a pay rise but he aint changing MS overnight thats for sure.
t
Working for 10 years and contributing on pushing the company to sink further deep is a great leadership.
A leader who enjoys the ride during best times and abandons the ship with its crew members and passengers when sinking while contributing a great deal of work for causing it.
That is a talent, a blind wants that has no clue where its ship is heading…Nice work to help push further down the other giant ship, any how time will be the judge!!!
First Gary Flake for Live Labs – now Dr. Q, sounds like Microsoft has already bought Yahoo! ! ~ One Executive Recruiter fee at a time…
Will Brian McAndrews become Yahoo’s new CEO? I think there’s a good chance for that to happen.
http://odedran....yahoos-new-ceo/
Getting a few more key figures and Microsoft will practically obtain Yahoo Search.
Sounds perfect, right people at right place.
Congrat.
wow is incredible cooool
If you haven’t figured it out, that was my way of saying that when we do buy Yahoo we will need a “Microsoft trained” oriental guy to take Yang’s place. One hard and fast rule we have around here is that you never do cross-culture-replacement of senior executives! Italians for Irish or French for Portuguese or even Mexican for Bolivian is OK, but never replace a China-man with anything less than a Korean! It simply isn’t done.
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