Los Angeles — Software monopolist Microsoft took great pains and effort to find the right person to head up its global advertising unit last summer, but after an eight-month stint at the company, Carolyn Everson, who led Microsoft’s global ad sales across Bing, MSN, and Windows Live, is leaving to join Facebook to become corporate vice president of global sales at the red-hot social media networking company.
Everson joined Microsoft last year from MTV Networks, where she worked as an EVP of strategy and operations for the company’s sales division, replacing Robin Domeniconi who left the post to take a job at Hachette Filipacchi’s Elle Group. At Redmond, Wash.-based company, she was appointed in part to be the traditional media-savvy face of Microsoft to Madison Avenue — which is often suspicious of the software giant’s desire to be a major media company.
Former Microsoft corporate VP Carolyn Everson, who has reportedly left for Facebook. (Credit: Microsoft)
AllThingsD, which was the first to report the news yesterday evening, said Everson will take on the role of VP of global sales at social media network Facebook, a post that had been vacant since late October by outgoing Mike Murphy.
While an opportunity to oversee ad sales at Facebook is clearly a massive personal opportunity for Everson, where she will assume the role of global sales VP at the social media network, but her quick departure is a serious blow to Microsoft.
A Microsoft representative declined to comment on Everson’s departure. But a Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg confirmed the hiring with the following statement:
“Microsoft was one of our earliest partners and is still one of our most valued. We have a long and strong relationship that includes search ads on our site, a social layer on Bing search results, and a deep and popular integration with Xbox. They are a leader when it comes to unlocking the power of social for their already popular products and services. We look forward to continuing to expand our relationship with them.”
Everson will become the VP of Global Sales at the Silicon Valley company, although is likely to be located in New York.
The move will surely cause some discord with the software giant, which is both a prominent partner of and investor in Facebook, especially since Everson was only hired at Microsoft last June after a long search.
Facebook’s statement, which suggests that nothing is changing in the Microsoft-Facebook relationship, even though Facebook is snatching away a top online executive from one of its investors:
Microsoft and Facebook remain business partners, with Microsoft having invested a $240 million stake in the social media network giant back in 2007. Employees have regularly gone back and forth between the two companies for jobs, though Everson represents one of the more high profile departures.
During her tenure, Everson visited nearly every Microsoft office across the globe and was just starting to endorse plans to change the image of the company’s media and sales groups — which is often still defined by the MSN portal. Before her time at Microsoft, Everson was COO and executive VP of U.S. ad sales for MTV Networks. Before that, she served in a number of executive roles for Primedia.
Analysts believe that Everson will use her conventional experience to enhance Facebook’s relations with Hollywood and larger brands and she will reportedly be based in New York rather than Silicon Valley.
In fact, according to sources, it was COO Sandberg, who was most focused on Everson. And lo!, she just “befriended” Everson on Facebook this week, as did another top ad exec, Tom Arrix.
Having a top exec who is amenable to and well known by Madison Avenue is key for Facebook as it seeks to bolster its ad efforts in preparation for a widely-anticipated IPO next year. eMarketer predicts that ad spend on the social media network will be more than double this year to surpass USD4bn, up from an estimated USD1.86bn generated in 2010.