IndustryAs Yahoo Layoff Rumors Swirl, Labs Chief Heads to Google

As Yahoo Layoff Rumors Swirl, Labs Chief Heads to Google

Yahoo's woes continue after it confirmed it will lose the head of its labs unit, Prabhakar Raghavan, to Google. Raghaven's research interests focused on search technologies, with particular interests in text, web mining, and algorithm design.

yahoo-labsYahoo’s woes continue after it confirmed it will lose the head of its labs unit, Prabhakar Raghavan, to Google. Raghaven’s research interests focused on search technologies, with particular interests in text, web mining, and algorithm design.

“Yahoo thanks Prabhakar Raghavan for his dedication and contributions to Yahoo for the past seven years,” said Yahoo in a statement. “We wish him well in his next endeavor. Ash Munshi, chief technology officer, will oversee Yahoo Labs.”

Yahoo is about to make large cuts to its labs unit, part of a major restructuring that will likely see thousands of layoffs, according to All Things Digital, although the firm has declined to confirm this.

The departure follows the exit of other leading directors at the company including founder Jerry Yang and chairman Roy Bostock.

In recent years, as Google has dominated the search industry, Yahoo has tried to reinvent itself as a content portal. That process has proved challenging for Yahoo, though, with former chief executive Carol Bartz fired last September for failing to turn the company around.

Scott Thompson, a former PayPal president, was brought in by Yahoo to take her place at the start of the year.

Microsoft’s New Attorney Led Google Antitrust Probe

Elsewhere, Microsoft has hired Federal Trade Commission (FTC) attorney, Randall Long, who led antitrust investigations into Google’s acquisitions of DoubleClick and AdMob.

Long will join Microsoft’s U.S. government affairs team as director of regulatory affairs, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“His deep legal experience will provide important perspective on a range of issues that affect both consumers and the broader technology industry,” said Microsoft vice president of U.S. Government Affairs, Fred Humphries.

This article was originally published on V3.

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