Brian McAndrews, once dubbed, "the most important ad man on the Internet," is out as the top ad man within Microsoft Corp. McAndrews, the former CEO of aQuantive who led its $6 billion sale to
Microsoft, has "decided to transition out" of the world's largest software and online marketing organization, as part of a broader reorganization of its Online Services Group, which named a former top
executive of Yahoo as its new president.
Qi Lu, who most recently served as executive vice president of engineering for the Search and Advertising Technology Group at Yahoo, was named
president of the Online Services Group at Microsoft, and will now oversee all of its efforts in search and online advertising, as well as all of the company's online information and communications
services.
The reorganization comes as there is renewed speculation that Yahoo might also go back into play.
Lu, who will report to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, left Yahoo! in August 2008
after 10 years of service.
Noting that the integration of aQuantive, including its advertising agency and online ad server groups, now completed, Microsoft said McAndrews will relinquish his
full-time role at Microsoft over the next few months, but would serve in a "consultative capacity to Steve Ballmer and Qi Lu during that time."
"Brian McAndrews built a world-class business for
advertisers and publishers and led the successful integration of aQuantive into Microsoft, setting the foundation for our next phase of growth," Ballmer said in the statement. "While I am sorry to see
Brian leave the company, I respect and understand his decision and wish him nothing but the best in the future."
As part of today's announcement, several teams will move to further align
resources. The field sales organizations in the Online Services Group will move to Microsoft's centralized Sales, Marketing and Services Group led by chief operating officer Kevin Turner. This group,
called Consumer & Online, will be led by Corporate Vice President Darren Huston and will include the Global Advertising Sales and Services organization, led by vice president Bill Shaughnessy.