Judge Clears the Way for Google's Microsoft Hire

MarkEst1973 was one of the first to write to tell us MSNBC is reporting that a Judge has cleared the way for Google to hire former Microsoft employee Kai-Fu Lee. The hire does come with several limitations and Lee was also found to have 'misled his former employer and taken advantage of confidential Microsoft information'. This comes as a follow up to the original story in which Microsoft sued Google in order to prevent the hire. Tom Burt was quoted as saying that "Dr. Lee is going to be the highest-paid HR manager ever."

Comments

Meanwhile...

[Anonymous Coward]

would you want to be this chair?

Funny

[user43]

Microsoft, your kung-fu no good!

Re:HR Manager

[shark72]

"What is the strategic importance of an HR manager to a company like Google? I'm not dissing HR managers, I just don't really understand how they fit into the picture, and what one can do for a company."

Two mistakes here:

1. Not RTFA (I know, that's a given)
2. The quote was out of context.

Here's the entire quote from Tom Burt:

"Dr. Lee is going to be the highest-paid HR manager ever. He can't tell them what to do, he can't direct them, he can't manage them."

In other words, Dr. Lee isn't really being hired as an HR manager. Tom Burt was being ironic. He was making a funny. His was a wry comment on the ruling that Dr. Lee can't use his expertise when working at Google -- in other words, all he can do is hire them, but not talk to them. Tom Burt was using humor and analogies to point out that if Dr. Lee were to comply with the ruling (which, as somebody pointed out, is unenforcable) then he'd effectively be working as a mere HR manager. Amazingly, even Microsoft employees can sometimes engage in wit and humor.

Again, Dr. Lee's title isn't HR Manager. It was a joke.