As expected, Qi Lu was unveiled as Microsoft's Corp.'s head of online services shortly after BoomTown broke the news yesterday afternoon, although his appointment to the company's top digital post
came several days earlier than expected. Lu succeeds Kevin Johnson, who left Microsoft in September after the Yahoo merger talks had broken down. As a result of Lu's appointment, Microsoft Senior Vice
President Brian McAndrews, who sought the same position, will leave the company. McAndrews, who had been CEO of aQuantive Inc., which Microsoft bought for $6 billion last year, is now thought to be a
candidate for the vacant CEO position at Yahoo.
Bloomberg News points out that Microsoft has replaced the leadership of its online services division roughly every two to three years since
getting into the Web business thirteen years ago. "They're looking at their revenue and market share and it doesn't look good, so they think they can continue to start over again until they get it
right," said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft in Kirkland, Washington.
Lu headed Yahoo's online search efforts, which continued to lose ground to Google on his watch. "Does
this make Microsoft more competitive in search today? No," said Colin Gillis, an analyst with Click Capital Research, adding that Lu hasn't proven himself as a marketer, either. He did praise the
former Yahoo as a "visionary" leader and a strong manager, however. Lu is the second former Yahoo search exec Microsoft hired in the past month, after Sean Suchter, a former VP.
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