Like Yahoo, Google has become a target for talent acquisition over the past years, especially with employee perks deteriorating, and now this movement has spread abroad.
Ex-Google UK Managing Director Kate Burns, who was at Dailymotion for 4 months after leaving Google, has been hired by AOL’s social networking giant Bebo, to help head Bebo Europe as its new Vice President and Managing Director.
Why is AOL hiring an ex-Google employee of any importance? Well for one, AOL is a Google search partner, but a direct competitor of Google in the UK after acquiring Bebo, the UK’s leading social network. Burns was also the first Google hire outside of the US, and her background is very advertising and search related, with previous involvement in DoubleClick and Altavista.
Burns will now be in charge of expanding Bebo across Europe and into Italy, Spain, Germany, France & the Netherlands. Given the growth Google saw under her command in the UK, I’d say that AOL may see their European expansion plan become a success under Burns & Bebo.
[Hattip Guardian]
Congrats to Burns. But will past performance be a good indicator of future results? Tough job ahead though.