Another Microsoft Exec Joins Google

SirClicksalot writes "CNN is reporting that Vic Gundotra, a 15-year veteran general manager at Microsoft, has left the company to join Google. Gundotra worked at Microsoft as general manager for platform evangelism to get software developers to use Microsoft's software and online offerings. The function he will perform at Google is not yet known, but he will need to wait one year before starting his new job because of a non-compete clause in his contract."

1 year vacation

[Iphtashu Fitz]

Not a bad deal. I'm sure Google will end up paying him for the 1 year vacation.

Google has to watch out though ;

[unity100]

Back in '45, gestapo members were taken into then newly-forming cia. The next 40 years have been a period where cia was run like a watered-down gestapo.

Google has to watch out that the microsoft ex'es do not spoil the formation of 'do no evil' they got going on at google.

Re:Curious statement

[bladesjester]

Actually, if you think about it, it makes sense for a couple of reasons. He can't actively work for them for a year. This means two things:

1) If they had announced his position now, by the time he actually got the ability to work for them, the landscape may have changed and they will either have to put him somewhere else (to cries of "Google is teh evil" because they said one thing and did another) or keep him in the position which they origionally stated, thus keeping him out of a position in which he may have been even more productive.

2) If they announced his position now, that gives the competition time to plan around him. This is especially true of Microsoft, because they know him best since he worked for them for so long. They know how he thinks and the kind of direction he will attempt to give Google (which will depend on the position he fills). That is not something you want your opponant to know.

Re:Curious statement

[Laura_DilDio]

Picking the low-hanging fruit is not being a dick.

Microsoft is at the proverbial crossroads. Their products have stagnated -- there's been no real innovation for the consumer. The company caters to industry, even at the expense of the consumer -- they are at risk of a backlash.

Bill is retiring, and Ballmer is viewed by many to be a goofball.

Google is simply exploiting a competitor's weakness.

Windows Vista had better be spectacular or Microsoft will be the next IBM. No company can stay at the top forever.

Re:Great News

[Anonymous Coward]

Not really, MS is full of old dogs milking the company for money (execs) and the developers/testers left are the bottom run and make no money whatsoever.

Microsoft's glory days are over. MS is only a "career" move if you are a manager/envangelist/exec and then jump ship with your money and awards.

A company is fucked when employees go around being "visible" as their number one focus. Thats what working at MS is like, VISIBILITY VISIBILITY VISIBILITY. That is all. Thats how you are rated and promoted on your comitments (which includes "visibility") :)

No such thing as a "career" in IT, its a dogs industry. I myself want out.

Re:Curious statement

[Anonymous Coward]

3) By announcing a position he is effectively 'working' or in preparation to begin 'work' in a role that competes against m$. Its in Googles best interest to ask him to go on faith for the year as it prevents a whole raft of legal issues they are bound to face.

Think of it this way ... if you employ someone and officially announce his role its harder to draw the distinction between working in an unrelated area, or working in preparation of that new role. When it comes to future court litigation you really want to make the distinction as obvious as possible. What Google wants to do is make sure that any work (either officially or privately) cannot be misinterpreted as competition, if he doesnt have a role then he has no direct responsibility or benefit from any such work since it is outside the scope of his employment.

Stupid I know ... but its really just an ass covering exercise, chances are he will be toiling away in the basement somewhere and either mothballing it or getting someone else to signoff on the work as their own. And dont tell me you wouldnt sell your grandmother to work in Googles basement :P

If he chose to leave... it's his own damn fault.

[mark-t]

Non-competes are often very easy to enforce the person left his earlier job voluntarily.

They are quite tricky to enforce if it can be shown that the change in careers was not completely voluntary, however. (Either being let go for reasons beyond the employee's control, he was under duress, constructive dismissal, etc...).

Re:Was that...

[Wellington Grey]

No kidding. Bring on the meta-chair-throwing jokes instead.

-Grey [wellingtongrey.net]

Re:If he chose to leave... it's his own damn fault

[rune-bare-rune]

A one-year non-compete agreement is not necessarily a bad thing for the individual.
It's one year paid vacation that you can use to study in your field.

(YMMV, at least a Google employee I know got paid in the waiting period, split between his old and new companies)

In soviet Russia

[Billly Gates]

Google hires MS executives! ... wait a minute?

Seriously, Borland tried to sue MS over this practice of luring all their good people away. Borland could not get anthing done as Microsoft's strategy was to send limo's and free lunches to Borland product managers and offer them lucrative positions at MS with cheap stock option signing bonuses. There products fell behind and Visual Studio took over.

Now the tides have turned.

I think this says alot about Microsoft as well. The people who are attracted to work at MS are hell bent on success and leading changes and being part of something successfull and new. Ms was king in the 90's and led the innovation and set the standards for computers and the future was bright and they were considered the wave of the future.

Today, Google is the new and innovative kid on the block and MS is stagnating. These same kind of people who like to make differences and be powerfull to satisfy their ego's see MS as the legacy company and google as the new innovative one. My, have times changed. This is bad news for Microsoft and morale at the company. They need to focus on something new besides upgrading windows and making yet game console.

So in the 90's MS hires your executives from YOU! Today Google hires MS executives.

I predict...

[OfNoAccount]

...that by 2012 Google won't be able to ship products on time.

Why? Well MS appears to have serious problems making things happen now, but it didn't used to. So, what's changed? Clearly not the recent defections - until very recently these folks were still at MS. I suspect that the people who actually made things happen left sometime around 2001/2002, and the folks that are leaving now might be the cause of the current problems at Redmond.

Google gets MS execs, MS gets Google tech guys

[I'm Don Giovanni]

While you guys celebrate Google hiring MS execs that do nothing, Microsoft is hiring away Google tech guys that actually do something besides draw a huge salary. I refer to guys like Danny Thorpe [msdn.com], who grew to be a legend as a Delphi dev at Borland, went to Google, stayed for 4 months, then quit and went to Microsoft to work on their live.com stuff. (If you read between the lines of Danny Thorpe's posts to the borland.public.delphi.non-technical newsgroup (accessible from Borland's newsserver and Google Groups), you get the idea that Danny concluded that Google isn't all it's cracked up to be.)

Also, Scoble's recent blog regarding this thread's topic says that he's met many former Google employees that now work at Microsoft, but you don't hear about them (I assume because they aren't big fat salary drawing execs, but are instead actual tech guys; and Microsoft doesn't feel the need to alert the media to such hirings like Google does (Google needs to do all it can to justify its inflated stock price)).

Was Gates keeping Ballmer in check?

[Nefarious Wheel]

If what we know about their different personalities from public appearances (Geek vs. Monkey Dancer) I'd say that a lot of people in high places are happy to work for the Borg under one Locutus, but not the other. Frankly I see Ballmer as a very rich sociopath, and if were in those circles I wouldn't want to work for him either. Gates would be ok, as a person, I think. But I would be terrified of working for Ballmer, and would jump ship at the nearest opportunity. Money can only go so far in overcoming fear for your life.