AOL just hired
anotherformer
Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) executive. It's a much
bigger deal for AOL than it is for Google.
Skeptics talk about a "
Google brain drain," as if a few migrant executives would
topple the entire company. That supposed drain has been going
on for years, and is showing no signs of letting up.
Ex-Googlers have gone on to fresh startups like
Twitterand
Facebook, to senior posts at promising businesses like
VMware (NYSE: VMW), and into
venture capitalism.
And yes, several former Googlers have moved to
Time Warner 's (NYSE: TWX) AOL. Today's
ex-Googler, Web search specialist Shashj Seth, becomes AOL's
chief of online advertising operations, where he reports to
former Googler Jeff Levick. And Levick's boss is AOL CEO Tim
Armstrong, who moved in from -- yep,
Google.
If AOL set out to build a microcosm of Google before going
public, then the company is doing a great job. These are
proven engineers, leaders, and entrepreneurs with solid
e-business experience from their years at Google and
elsewhere. When Time Warner kicks this birdie out of the
nest, I expect AOL to find its wings quickly. AOL may never
relive the glory years of the 1990s when "You've got mail"
was a daily routine for millions of early Internet users, but
it could at least re-establish itself as a legitimate rival
to
Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO),
IAC/InterActive (Nasdaq: IACI), and
Microsoft 's (Nasdaq: MSFT) online division.
Call me when AOL finally
goes public on its ownagain.
In the meantime, personnel moves are nothing new in
Silicon Valley. Google snatched many of its key employees
from competitors like Microsoft. CEO Eric Schmidt came in
from
Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL). At AOL, Mr. Seth will
work alongside Brad Garlinghouse -- the man behind Yahoo's
famed
peanut butter manifesto. Google will steal a few big
names in the next couple of years -- and lose a bunch. And
that's okay.
Even if Google starts losing some truly high-profile
names, like search maven
Marissa Mayeror technology evangelist
Vint Cerf, the show must and willgo on. As long as the
triumvirate of Eric, Larry, and Sergei stays intact at the
top, Google's pulse will stay strong. Even those guys might
be replaceable in a pinch. Google has a unique corporate
culture in which
the vision comes from the topand execution lives in the
day-to-day trenches.
Google has
a lot of growing left to do, even while it's shedding a
few big names along the way. That's why
I'm in for the long haul.
This article was originally published as
Google Gives AOL Another Top Talenton
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