Summary: Xbox suffers another major blow and "aQuantive exodus" affects Microsoft's prospects online

IT was only a few months ago that the Xbox director quit the company, soon to be followed by the CTO of this very same unit. Just when it appears like the team has a true vacuum issue yet another leader calls it quits and 'retires' at the age of 46. This further confirms the observation that Xbox is a dying team.

As the following coverage reminds us, even Peter Moore (unit head) quit the company last year, along with lots of other staff ("more than 15% of the product team," wrote an anonymous Microsoft employee).

Microsoft’s Xbox game brain drain continues as a senior executive departs

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Executive departures are fairly common at the Microsoft game business. Peter Moore left in 2008 to join Electronic Arts. Former EA executive John Schappert joined Microsoft to take the helm at Xbox Live, but he left this summer to return to the No. 2 post at Electronic Arts. Kim plans to stay through the end of the year.

This latest development is also covered in:

• Microsoft's Shane Kim to retire
• Microsoft's Shane Kim Retiring
• Executive Shane Kim Stepping Down To Spendi More Time With His Family
• Shane Kim To Retire
• Veteran game exec Shane Kim retiring from Microsoft
• Gaming veteran Shane Kim to leave Microsoft
• Xbox Executive Shane Kim Leaving Microsoft
• Veteran Microsoft gaming exec Shane Kim to retire
• Shane Kim to retire from Microsoft
• Shane Kim to Retire
• Microsoft’s Shane Kim to retire after 19 years of service
• Shane Kim To Retire From Microsoft
• Xbox VP Kim to retire at end of 2009
• Microsoft’s Shane Kim To Retire By Year’s End
• Microsoft Executives Shifting Positions, Shane Kim To Retire By Year's End
• Microsoft Xbox exec Shane Kim leaving company
• Microsoft's Shane Kim to retire
• Microsoft's Shane Kim Retiring This Year
• Xbox chief Shane Kim steps down, Spencer and Durkin promoted
• Microsoft: Kim Retires, Spencer Promoted
• Microsoft's Shane Kim To Retire, Phil Spencer Promoted

Given that Xbox has already lost about $7 billion, the unit helps weaken the company which is viciously attacking GNU/Linux (most recently with patent trolls [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]) and thus it is relevant to us. A Microsoft insider very recently shed some light on how bad things are at Xbox.

“Microsoft's dreams of a profitable advertising platform seem to be fading.”It is equally bad on the Web (if not worse). Microsoft is trying to establish an advertising business in there. Does anyone still remember (let alone uses) this renamed 'search engine' (propaganda filter) that Microsoft relaunched? It seems to have sunk into a chasm as soon as the $100 million in advertising budget ran out. Microsoft even paid blogs to make some artificial buzz about it.

Microsoft's dreams of a profitable advertising platform seem to be fading. In-game advertising staff was massively sacked this year. The 'father' of aQuantive, Brian McAndrews, has already quit Microsoft (where he has landed thereafter may be a separate problem), but watch how many colleagues of his quietly followed him:

The aQuantive exodus from Microsoft continues. Just yesterday, we reported that Karl Siebrecht -- the former president of aQuantive's Atlas unit -- planned to leave Microsoft to join Seattle online advertising startup AdReady. Now, we've received word that three other former aQuantive execs who held general manager titles at the software giant -- Aaron Easterly, Brian Handly and Brent Turner -- also gave notice last week. And one of those execs has already landed a new job at a Seattle online advertising company

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Microsoft has lost some other key employees who came over in the aQuantive deal, most notably former aQuantive CEO Brian McAndrews who announced his plans to join Seattle's Madrona Venture Group on August 13th. (That was exactly two years after the aQuantive deal closed).

Microsoft has already gotten rid of over 2,000 employees of aQuantive. It only seem reasonable for their peers to see the writings on the wall. ⬆