Microsoft may not have acquired Yahoo’s search business, but it has acquired what some may consider the next best thing. The software giant announced Thursday that it has hired Dr. Qi Lu, Yahoo’s former vice president of engineering for search and advertising technology, to run its online-services group and focus on search advertising.
“I am genuinely excited about the opportunities ahead for Microsoft to make an enormous impact on the online industry,” Lu said. “Microsoft has built a great foundation for its search and advertising technologies and put an amazing team of researchers and engineers in place to drive the next wave of innovation in online services.”
Beginning Jan. 5, Lu will oversee several groups, including Microsoft’s advertiser and publisher solutions business and the online audience, research and finance groups, according to the company. Lu will work with three top executives, including Scott Howe, Yusuf Mehdi, and Satya Nadella.
“I’m looking forward to working with them to help transform the way people and businesses use the Internet to find and share information,” Lu said.
Brian McAndrews, former chief executive of aQuantive, an ad company Microsoft bought earlier this year for $6 million, is slated to leave the company after a few months of consulting with Lu and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
“I am tremendously excited to welcome Qi to Microsoft,” Ballmer said. “Dr. Lu’s deep technical expertise, leadership capabilities, and hard-working mentality are well known in the technology industry, and Microsoft will benefit from his addition to our executive management team.”
The move comes after weeks of speculation that Microsoft would put in another bid for Yahoo’s search business. Microsoft withdrew its $47.5 billion buyout offer in May after Yahoo’s board and CEO Jerry Yang rejected the bid, saying it was too low.
Late last month Ballmer said Microsoft no longer was interested in…