Hiring Qi Lu for its digital head, Microsoft bounced VP and former aQuantive CEO Brian McAndrews. But it might not be long till he lands a new gig. Yahoo board chairman Roy Bostock has six criteria for the next Yahoo CEO, according to Kara Swisher, and McAndrews meets all of them.
- "Extensive" experience as the CEO of a public company. Before Microsoft acquired aQuantive for $6 billion, it was a public company (AQNT) with a $2.8 billion market cap and more than 2,000 employees.
- Media expertise. McAndrews certainly gained that helping running Microsoft's digital side. One of aQuantive's businesses was the ATLAS publishing platform, which helps publishers pick the right ads.
- Advertising expertise. aQuantive ran three advertising businesses, the ATLAS publishing platform, contextual ad business DRIVEpm and interactive ad agency Avenue A/Razorfish.
- Mergers and acquisitions experience. McAndrews actually knows how to finish a deal with Microsoft having sold aQuantive for $6 billion.
- Strategic skills. After Google bought DoubleClick for $3.1 billion, Microsft needed to answer. McAndrews made sure aQuantive was it, and for twice as much money.
Despite his qualifications, Roy might ignore McAndrews because of how it looks like he left Microsoft as a failure. Says one shareholder:
If Yahoo picks him, the only conclusion is the best guy they could get was rejected as division-head at company running distant third in the industry.
He was the obvious candidate for Microsoft top spot the moment they decided to make change. Instead, they search the world for 8 months and bring someone new in. If they hired him I would scream for weeks.
