Microsoft's online shakeup makes former aQuantive CEO a free agent

Brian McAndrews

Microsoft's choice of former Yahoo executive Qi Lu as its new online services chief resolves a question that had gone unanswered for months. The new question: What will Brian McAndrews do now?

McAndrews, the former CEO of Seattle-based aQuantive, joined Microsoft when it acquired the digital marketing company last year. He pursued the position to which Lu was named today. As part of today's announcement, the Redmond company said McAndrews will "transition out of Microsoft" over the next several months. Although the transition period indicates the departure is amicable, it's clear that McAndrews is leaving because he didn't get the big job.

Could McAndrews turn around and become a candidate for Yahoo's vacant CEO job? That might be poetic, but people who know McAndrews say they don't think he's looking to leave the Seattle region.

What about something in the startup world? As a matter of fact, we spotted McAndrews hobnobbing Monday night at the Voyager Capital holiday reception in downtown Seattle, schmoozing with players including Bill McAleer and Enrique Godreau, founding partners in the venture capital firm.

But McAndrews doesn't seem interested in building a new company from the ground up, said Susannah Malarkey, executive director of the Technology Alliance, who knows the former aQuantive chief. McAndrews seems to be more likely to lead a midstage company that already had a basic structure in place, Malarkey said. He will probably take a break after leaving the company, she said, but when he gets back in the game, he'll be in a position to "really pick and choose" what he wants to do.

"He’s going to do something really cool," she said. "There’s no doubt about that."

McAndrews' departure from Microsoft will conclude a wild ride that began in September 1999, when he joined aQuantive, then known as Avenue A. The company had about 35 employees at the time, recalled Godreau, whose Voyager Capital was an early investor  By October 1999, Avenue A was talking to investment bankers about an IPO, and it went public in February 2000. [Note: IPO date corrected since original post.]

Godreau, who helped recruit McAndrews, called him "one of the calmest and most level-headed executives" he has worked with.

McAndrews survived some tough times at aQuantive, including a threatened NASDAQ delisting, before selling the company to Microsoft for $6 billion last year. It has been a wild ride, and some time off will be in order, Godreau said.

"Brian has got one thing on his mind right now, and that is warm sand between his toes,"  he said.

But if McAndrews ultimately gets involved in another venture, would Voyager be interested?

"Of course we would," Godreau said, before adding, tongue-in-cheek: "A $6 billion exit? Maybe. I guess we’d have to see the business plan."

McAndrews, a former ABC and General Mills executive, has been Microsoft's senior vice president of Advertiser and Publisher Solutions, with responsibilities including integrating the aQuantive operations into the company. In choosing Lu, an executive with an extensive engineering experience, the company opted for someone with a much deeper technical background.

In an e-mail to employees announcing Lu's appointment, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said he was sorry to see McAndrews go. Ballmer wrote that McAndrews "has helped build a world-class business in online advertising that provides a solid foundation for future growth."