Microsoft Hires Head of Online Services from Yahoo

Gregory T. Huang12/5/08

Redmond, WA-based Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) announced it has appointed Qi Lu as president of its online services group, which encompasses all of the company’s online search, advertising, information, and communications services. Lu was most recently Yahoo’s executive vice president of engineering for search and advertising technology. Before spending 10 years at Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO), Lu, 47, held positions at IBM, Carnegie Mellon University, and Fudan University in China. He starts at Microsoft on January 5, and will report directly to CEO Steve Ballmer. On the way out is Brian McAndrews, former CEO of aQuantive and senior vice president of Microsoft’s advertiser & publisher solutions group, who will serve as a consultant to Ballmer and Lu over the next few months.

Gregory T. Huang is Xconomy's National IT Editor and the Editor of Xconomy Boston. You can e-mail him at gthuang@xconomy.com, call him at 617-252-7323, or follow him on Twitter at @gthuang.