Another Microsoft executive has succumbed to the allure of Google and will join the search advertising company after spending his non-compete year in philanthropic pursuits.
Vic Gundotra has been a general manager for platform evangelism at Microsoft, spending 15 years with the Redmond company. Business 2.0’s Owen Thomas reports that Gundotra has resigned from Microsoft in favor of their Mountain View-based search competitor.
Thomas cited a statement from Google on their latest employee hired away from Microsoft:
“Mr. Gundotra has resigned from Microsoft and entered into an agreement with Google,” Google spokesman Steve Langdon wrote in an emailed statement. “He will not be a Google employee for one year and intends to spend that time on philanthropic pursuits. We are uncertain what precise role he will play when he begins working for Google, but he has a broad range of skills and experience which we believe will be valuable to Google.”
On a blog trivia note, ex-Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble posted that Gundotra hired him into Microsoft, and told Scoble “this might be good for your career.”
Dave Winer followed that train of thought by noting Gundotra “was trying real hard to keep Scoble at Microsoft, but all along he must have been negotiating the job at Google.”
It’s Microsoft’s second significant personnel loss in a week. Martin Taylor, a marketing vice-president with the company, was apparently let go by Microsoft the same day he was supposed to address media questions about Windows Live Messenger.
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David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.
