Microsoft & Facebook No Longer Friends After Employee Poaching Accusations

Kara Swisher reports Microsoft is considering taking legal action against Facebook for allegedly poaching their employees.

Facebook recently hired Microsoft’s global ad sales head Carolyn Everson. That sparked a deeper look at how Facebook may be going after Microsoft’s talent. And Microsoft may potentially use legal action to prevent Everson from working at Facebook. It wouldn’t be the first time Microsoft used legal measures to prevent former employees from working at other companies.

“Microsoft was one of our earliest partners and is still one of our most valued,” Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO said, in part. “We look forward to continuing to expand our relationship with them.”

Yes, Microsoft and Facebook have a long and friendly history. In 2007, Microsoft invested $240 million in Facebook. A year ago, Facebook extended their search deal with Microsoft Bing. And Facebook has given Microsoft Bing access to Facebook likes for bettering the Bing search results.

It will be interesting to see how this new concern between Microsoft and Facebook impacts their relationship in the future.

Related Stories:

Related Topics: Facebook | Microsoft: Business Issues


About The Author: is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here.

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  • http://www.edeninteractive.com searchengineman

    I can just feel the love. It must be great being a lawyer working for these companies. Poaching sounds like “Sour Grapes” to me.

    Searchengineman

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