Microsoft signs Yahoo exec as head of online services

Dr Qi Lu will head up Microsoft Online Services

Microsoft has appointed former Yahoo executive Dr Qi Lu as the new head of its Online Services group.

Dr Lu was executive vice president of engineering for the Search and Advertising Technology Group at Yahoo, responsible for improving and monetising the web firm's search technology.

"I am tremendously excited to welcome Dr Lu to Microsoft," said Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.

"Dr Lu's deep technical expertise, leadership capabilities and hard-working mentality are well known in the technology industry, and Microsoft will benefit from his addition to our executive management team."

Dr Lu is a former researcher at the IBM Almaden Research Centre, and gained his PhD from Carnegie Mellon University. He holds 20 patents and will start at Microsoft in the new year.

"I am genuinely excited about the opportunities ahead for Microsoft to make an enormous impact on the online industry," Dr Lu said.

"Microsoft has built a great foundation for its search and advertising technologies, and put an amazing team of researchers and engineers in place to drive the next wave of innovation in online services.

"I am looking forward to working with them to help transform the way people and businesses use the internet to find and share information."

Microsoft's loss-making Online Services arm has been leaderless since July, and Dr Lu will be charged with bringing it to profitability. He will report directly to Ballmer.

Last month, Microsoft hired Sean Suchter, another former Yahoo search executive.