So Qi Lu has just been confirmed as the new head of online services for Microsoft. Qi Lui is a brilliant guy and they must be thrilled to have him, but if I was one of the workers riding the wifi bus to Yahoo!, or an exec wondering if about the upcoming round of staff cuts, I'd be feeling pretty bitter right now.

I mean, not only has Yahoo! lost incredible stock value in the past 18 months, it's lost amazing talent.  After all, if you don't have a strategy, how do you know what you need to accomplish and who you (really) need to keep? And if you don't know what you're focusing on in the big picture, how can you keep the best performers signed up and interested?

My guess is that Microsoft is going to do a better job keeping Qi Lu than Yahoo! has done with many of the non-sales Microsofties they have hired, many of whom came, created reorgs, and then left. Of course, given the number of people the two companies have been trading back and forth over the past 18 months, there's no need at all to buy anything, is there?