Microsoft Adds Two More Former Yahoos, Including VP Of International Search

QiLu

The list of former Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) employees who have recently decamped to Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is now up to 10. Yongdong Wang, the former Yahoo vice president of international search, and Knut Risvik, a former Yahoo chief architect, are the latest to join Microsoft, according to Seattle-area tech site TechFlash. The hirings come as Microsoft is investing heavily to challenge Google (NSDQ: GOOG) in search. Earlier this month, the company relaunched its search engine under the moniker Bing.

A likely key attraction for Risvik and Wang is Qi Lu (pictured), the new president of Microsoft’s online service division, who himself came from Yahoo, where he was executive vice president of engineering for search and advertising technology. Risvik had most recently been an engineering director at Google. He describes himself in his LinkedIn profile as being “widely known as the thought leader and chief architect” for the Fast Search and Transfer search engine. Fast Search and Transfer sold its web search business to Overture in 2003 and its enterprise search business to Microsoft last year. Wang had worked at Yahoo for six years, according to his LinkedIn profile. He joined from Inktomi.

— VP of International Search Yongdong Wang
— Yahoo Chief Architect Knut Risvik
VP of Operations Kevin Timmons
Yahoo VP of Operations for Search and Advertising Dayne Sampson
Chief Scientist for the Search and Advertising Technology Group Jan Pedersen
VP of Search and Advertising Sciences Larry Heck
VP of US Field Marketing Eric Hadley
SVP and Head of Yahoo Media Scott Moore
— VP of Web Search Technology Sean Suchter
Yahoo EVP of engineering for Search and Ad Tech Qi Lu

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