Relations between Microsoft and Yahoo may sour as a result, but it’s a good bet Yahoo execs are going to brag a bit about a new hire. It seems a Microsoft executive charged with working on the companies’ search alliance is switching sides.
Kara Swisher reported earlier this morning, “[Brett] Wayn must have liked what he saw at the Silicon Valley Internet giant, since he is bouncing there from his job at the Redmond, Wash. software giant to run local efforts at Yahoo.”
That represents a big win for Yahoo in terms of PR alone. The organization’s of course lost a lot of execs to other corporations in recent months and years, so for it to get one from Microsoft is an interesting reversal.
Moreover, Wayn could prove to be a valuable asset to Yahoo. Before taking on the search integration role at Microsoft, he was a general manager of global programming there for most of two years.
Also, prior to that, Wayn was the president and CEO of AOL Japan, and even earlier in his career, he was the content director and CEO of AOL Australia.
It’s reasonable to expect that Wayn has a solid understanding of what it takes to make products and services work in many different languages and markets, then.
Anyway, to give a little more background on the situation, Swisher noted, “Wayn replaces Matt Idema, a longtime Yahoo exec who shuttled over to Facebook as a director of business operations, working on the local arena.”