Google Settles With Microsoft
Microsoft Corp. said Thursday that it had reached a settlement with rival Google Inc. and former employee Kai-Fu Lee, ending a legal battle that had exposed behind-the-scenes rancor between the two companies.
Microsoft said in a statement that the three parties had entered into a “private agreement that resolves all issues to their mutual satisfaction.”
Google confirmed the settlement and released a statement from Lee saying he was “pleased with the terms of the settlement agreement.”
Microsoft spokesman Jack Evans declined to say when the settlement was reached. He also would not provide details of the settlement, saying it was confidential.
Google also declined to comment further.
Lee, who began working at Microsoft in 2000, oversaw development of its MSN Internet search technology, including desktop search software rivaling Google’s.
He left in July to lead Google’s expansion into China.
Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft sued Lee and Google in a Washington state court, contending that Lee’s job at Google would violate terms of a non-compete agreement that prohibited him from doing similar work for a rival for one year. Microsoft also accused Lee of using insider information to get his job at Google, based in Mountain View, Calif.
Google responded with its own lawsuit against Microsoft in U.S. District Court in San Jose.
The case has shed light on bitterness between software titan Microsoft and search engine king Google, two high-tech powerhouses who seem increasingly to be edging into one another’s turf.
Court documents released in September said that Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, in an obscenity-laced tirade over another former employee having been hired away by Google, threw a chair and vowed to “kill” Google.
Ballmer has called the characterization of his response a “gross exaggeration.”
Also last fall, Microsoft released an internal e-mail from a Google executive that suggested the search engine company pursue Lee, then still a Microsoft executive, “like wolves.”
