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Top Engineer Jumps Ship at Microsoft for Google

TMCnet Feature

December 16, 2013

Top Engineer Jumps Ship at Microsoft for Google

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By Ed Silverstein
TMCnet Contributor

Top tech employees can chart their own careers at the employer of their choice. So it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that another Microsoft employee is jumping ship to Google (News - Alert). This time it involves one of Microsoft’s top engineers: Blaise Agüera y Arcas.


In the past, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer – who is soon to leave the company – was known to have temper tantrums in such a situation – complete with foul language and throwing a chair across the room – when word came one of his prize employees was leaving for the rival company. Also, Microsoft (News - Alert) even filed a lawsuit against Google in response to the hiring away of Kai-Fu Lee, a former vice president at Microsoft. The two sides eventually reached a settlement in that dispute. At times, Microsoft claimed employees heading to rival companies violated non-competition agreements signed by the workers while at Microsoft.

To get an idea of how emotional Microsoft can get in such a situation, last year, Danielle Tiedt, who was a general manager at Bing, was hired by Google’s YouTube (News - Alert). Microsoft suggested in a statement that she was fired, not just hired away. Such a public announcement was an unusual move for any large company.

But this time the response by Microsoft is more muted and respectful. A basic statement was released. “He was a great colleague and we wish him the best in his future endeavors,” Adam Sohn, a spokesman for Microsoft, told The New York Times.

Meanwhile, Agüera y Arcas confirmed he is leaving for Google in a blog post, calling it the “hardest decision of my life.”

“On one hand, of course this is tremendously exciting; Google is a company of grand ambitions and brilliant people,” he said. “On the other hand it has been hard — very hard— to detach emotionally from Microsoft.  The company’s leadership has been consistently good to me over these past eight years, and it has been a time filled with creativity and growth and good friends.  It’s painful to leave behind so many wonderful ongoing projects, and even more so to leave behind such a great team.”

One acquaintance of his, Chris Grayson commented below his blog post, “Kudos on the move. It’s a sad statement about Microsoft to be [losing] … talent like yourself. You should have been the solution for the Ballmer succession plan.”

He worked on many important projects while at Microsoft, news reports said. For example, Agüera y Arcas worked on wearable computing, natural user interfaces and Bing Maps. He also worked on Photosynth, which relates to 3-D panoramas. Now at Google, he will be involved machine learning, The Times reported.

The flow of employees from Microsoft to Google will no doubt continue – much to the delight of one company and anger of another.




Edited by Cassandra Tucker


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