Former Yahoo Tech Star Eric Boyd to Microsoft (via Mochi Media)
Eric Boyd (pictured here), a high-profile techie from Yahoo who left the company for a start-up last year, is now headed to Microsoft to work for its digital group, now run by another ex-Yahoo, Qi Lu.
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft's digital group has been filling out its bench with Yahoo alumni since late last year, when BoomTown flagged Yusuf Mehdi's expanded MSN role while noting there was still no digital head in sight. The group now runs under Qi Lu, himself an ex-Yahoo executive, making it one of the most concentrated landing spots for Yahoo talent outside Yahoo itself.
First-order effects
- Eric Boyd, who left a high-profile Yahoo tech role for Mochi Media just last year, now reports into Qi Lu's digital group — a short startup stint followed by a quick re-entry into a large platform company.
- Mochi Media loses a marquee technical name barely a year into its effort to build credibility around him.
Second-order effects
- Yahoo keeps functioning as a recruiting pool for Microsoft's online ambitions rather than a competitor for them, with each departure making the next one easier to justify internally at Microsoft.
- Startups like Mochi Media that poached from Yahoo during its turmoil become way stations back into big-company digital groups, weakening the argument that leaving a giant means staying independent.
Third-order effects
- If the ex-Yahoo cluster around Qi Lu's organization keeps growing, Microsoft's digital strategy becomes partly an exercise in importing Yahoo-built talent rather than developing it internally — with retention of that cohort as the real test of whether the approach compounds or churns.
The trend: Yahoo's post-2008 turbulence is converting its technical leadership into the hiring base for Microsoft's digital group, one former colleague at a time.