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:

• Microsoft Makes $240 Million Investment In Facebook
• Microsoft Extends Bing Search Deal With Facebook
• Microsoft Live Search Coming To Facebook
• Microsoft’s Facebook Ad Deal Doesn’t Include Search
• Facebook Search Box Is Low-Hanging Fruit For Microsoft
• Bing Integrates Facebook Likes Further Into Its Search Results
• Bing, Now With Extra Facebook: See What Your Friends Like & People Search Results

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Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz 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 can be followed on social media at @rustybrick, +BarrySchwartz and Facebook. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio and disclosures, click over here.