Marketing Pilgrim

I’m not about to turn Marketing Pilgrim into a collection of children’s nursery rhymes, but news that three Yahoo employees have defected to Microsoft did bring this to mind:

Three blind mice. Three blind mice.
See how they run. See how they run.
They all ran after the farmer’s wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
Did you ever see such a sight in your life,
As three blind mice?

It might be a little unfair to suggest that running into the open arms of Microsoft is akin to a “career de-tailing” but it does make you wonder how bad is it over at Yahoo? After all, they have a new CEO who appears to be saying all the right things–even if some are laced with an f-bomb or two–so why would the following simply bail?

• Kevin Timmons – vice president of Operations
• Yongdong Wang – vice president of international search
• Knut Risvik – former Yahoo chief architect

Ok, so Risvik had already bailed on Yahoo for a stint at Google, but “two blind mice” wouldn’t have worked for this post. Besides, the fact that Risvik left both Yahoo and Google for Microsoft makes you wonder what it is that the Redmond company is dangling as an incentive. Is it the promise of untold riches, or is Bing really that good?