Microsoft Corp. announced the departure of several executives Thursday, among them Steve Berkowitz, senior vice president of Microsoft's online business group, a Silicon Valley veteran recruited to help fix its unprofitable Web business. Berkowitz will hand off his duties to three insiders: Satya Nadella, currently in charge of search and search advertising engineering; Bill Veghte, a Windows marketing executive; and Brian McAndrews, formerly the chief executive of online advertising group aQuantive, which Microsoft acquired last year. Berkowitz joined Microsoft in 2006 after turning around Oakland, Calif.-based Ask.com, which, with related sites, was acquired by InterActiveCorp for $2.3 billion during his tenure as chief executive; no reason was given for his departure, and he will stay through August to help with the transition.
Brought in to help turn around Microsoft's own Web business, Berkowitz was charged with expanding the audience on its disparate MSN and Windows Live sites - making them more attractive to advertisers - and forging new business relationships, such as the ad partnership announced last summer with social news site Digg.com. With Berkowitz's departure, all advertising efforts will be consolidated under McAndrews. MSN head Joanne Bradford will report to Nadella. Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos said today's announcement is unrelated to the Yahoo negotiations.
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