Yahoo India has started the transfer to Microsoft of engineers working in the area of search and search advertising. The transfer is part of Microsoft’s deal with Yahoo by which the software maker’s Bing search engine will be used to power Yahoo searches while Yahoo will sell premium advertising for both companies.
Over 200 engineers from Yahoo India will move to a development center that Microsoft has set up in Bangalore to focus on development and research for its Online Services Division (OSD), Satya Nadella , a Microsoft senior vice president for research and development, told reporters on Thursday.
The new center will be part of Microsoft’s R&D organization, which already has over 1,500 staff in Hyderabad. Some engineers at Hyderabad already work on search technologies.
Under the deal with Yahoo, 400 engineers worldwide from the company were to be transferred to Microsoft. Nadella said he hoped to complete the transfer of the Yahoo engineers in India to the Bangalore center by the end of this year.
Yahoo has built strong expertise in the area of search and search advertising in India, which is the reason why Microsoft chose more than half of the 400 engineers from the India center, said Shouvick Mukherjee , vice president and CEO of Yahoo India’s R&D operation in Bangalore.
The 200 engineers in India have been given the choice of either staying with Yahoo and working in other engineering areas, or accepting the offers from Microsoft, Mukherjee said.
Yahoo, which has 2,000 engineers in Bangalore, plans to hire another 300 this quarter to focus on areas such as mobile Internet, cloud computing, display advertising, and media products, Mukherjee said.
Yahoo continues to compete with Microsoft on search and will be working on technologies that will take advantage of Yahoo’s content, and its insight into user behavior, to provide a differentiated experience to Yahoo users, Mukherjee added.