Personnel

Both AT&T and Research In Motion decided to choose Friday afternoon to announce shifts in their respective executive ranks.

AT&T announced late today that CFO Rick Lindner, a 19-year company vet, will retire as of June 1, to be replaced by Controller John Stephens. Meanwhile, Research In Motion said that its chief marketing officer, Keith Pardy (seen here), is leaving the company for personal reasons. Although the departure wasn't announced until Friday, Pardy let the company know of his plans a month ago, according to a person familiar with the situation.

RIM did not immediately … Read more

Microsoft--furious over a recent talent grab of its top advertising exec by Facebook--has been considering a wide range of options, including legal action to block the move, according to sources close to the situation.

Lawyer at both companies have been in back-and-forth talks in recent days after the hiring of Microsoft's global ad sales head Carolyn Everson by the Silicon Valley social-networking powerhouse to be its VP of global sales.

Among the more likely solutions being discussed: Barring Everson--a longtime ad sales exec who came to Microsoft from MTV Networks--from using any strategic information she learned at the company … Read more

Microsoft today announced 19-year company veteran Satya Nadella will replace Bob Muglia as head of its server and tools business.

Nadella, who had previously headed up research and development for Microsoft's online services division, was also the lead for the company's business solutions team and a lead engineer in its server group. Microsoft says Nadella's new role as president of the server and tools business is to "oversee the overall strategy, engineering, marketing and product development for Microsoft's server, tools and cloud platform efforts."

The news comes a month after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer … Read more

Kevin Johnson, who left Microsoft to be CEO of Juniper Networks this summer, will be receiving almost all of his targeted bonus from Microsoft, or $600,000, according to Securities and Exchange documents filed Monday.

The company's proxy statement shows that Johnson's fiscal 2008 salary was $620,800 and he owned more than 1.5 million shares of Microsoft stock as of September 5, which would be worth nearly $40 million at current prices.

The performance-based bonus reached 97 percent of the target because of Johnson's work integrating Aquantive into the company, increased page views on the … Read more

Neil Budde, editor-in-chief of news, finance, and sports at Yahoo, has joined a news aggregation start-up called DailyMe where he will be president and chief product officer.

Budde left Yahoo on December 12, 2007. He then joined DailyMe, a site that allows people to customize, schedule, and share news, on Wednesday.

Before joining Yahoo in late 2004, Budde was founding editor and publisher of The Wall Street Journal Online.

Just a few days ago, Yahoo lost another entertainment manager. Ian Rogers, general manager of Yahoo Music, resigned to be chief executive at music start-up Topspin Media.

"I had a … Read more

The trend is clear--the best bait for well-fed Googlers, especially ones who joined after the company's 2004 IPO, is another hot pre-IPO company. And Facebook is that company.

The latest Googler to jump to Facebook is Ethan Beard. Formerly director of social media at the search giant, he will become director of business development at the popular social-networking company. The news was first reported by TechCrunch.

The defection comes shortly after Google sales chief Sheryl Sandberg left to go to Facebook. Others who have blazed the trail include Benjamin Ling of Google Checkout, Justin Rosenstein of GDrive, and Gideon … Read more

Yahoo defections aren't news. But people trying to get hired there? Stop the presses!

That's the gist of this blog entry at headhunter firm BINC.

BINC Chief Executive Boris Epstein writes:

"So it's obviously no surprise that Yahoo is in trouble right now and people are leaving in droves. That's why I was so surprised to hear one of my candidates tell me that he's currently interviewing with Yahoo right now. WHAT!! Why is he interviewing with Yahoo? It's like somebody jumping on board Titanic mid sink."

The candidate's reasoning is … Read more

The person in charge of marketing for Yahoo is the latest executive to leave the company, which is in transition.

Chief Marketing Officer Cammie Dunaway is leaving the company at the end of this month, according to a Yahoo statement.

"Since joining Yahoo in 2003, Cammie has built an award-winning direct-marketing team, improved the company's customer insights and found creative ways to improve our brand," the statement said. "Cammie has strengthened the marketing function and built a strong bench of creative talent. We wish her all the best in her future endeavors and thank her for … Read more

Yahoo is leasing office space and hiring in the Seattle area, not far from Microsoft actually, as part of a plan to create a technology hub in the area.

The company has leased three floors, about 115,000 square feet, in an office building in Bellevue, Wash., and will likely fill it with 450 to 600 workers, David Sobeski, senior vice president of platforms and architecture at Yahoo, said in an interview on Friday.

In addition to hiring an unknown number of people, Yahoo will consolidate workers who are in scattered offices in the area. They include salespeople and engineers … Read more