• Bloomberg News, Thursday, February 12, 2009 11:45 AM

Microsoft continues to lift search executives from Yahoo. This morning, the software giant announced the addition of Larry Heck, a former Yahoo VP who was in charge of making search results more relevant. Heck is the third Yahoo search executive to join Microsoft since November. The others were Sean Suchter and Qi Lu, who is now president of Microsoft's entire online services division.

Microsoft ranks third in the U.S. search market, well behind No. 2 Yahoo, and miles behind search leader Google. However, the company is investing heavily in search technology to close that gap, and many industry watchers believe it is only a matter of time before Microsoft buys Yahoo's search business. "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," Matt Rosoff, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, tells Bloomberg News. "They want to go where the money is."

Indeed, though Microsoft is cutting as many as 5,000 jobs in the next 18 months, the company's search business is still hiring. At Microsoft, Heck will answer to Satya Nadella, a senior vice president at the online services unit.

Read the whole story at Bloomberg News »