MicroHoo Irony: Kevin Johnson Moves in Right Next to Yahoo
by Kara Swisher
Posted on July 24, 2008 at 12:00 AM PT
Oh, BoomTown loves a delicious irony.
And in this departure of Kevin Johnson, president of Platforms and Services Division, from Microsoft–a big-deal job, let it be said–to become CEO of the network infrastructure company, Juniper Networks, is what my grandmother liked to call a beaut.
Johnson, I might remind you, was the point person on the software giant’s failed takeover bid to acquire Yahoo (YHOO), which rejected him and the rest of the Microsoft (MSFT) team over and over again in a very public fashion.
But who will Johnson’s most immediate Internet neighbor be when he takes up residence, presumably, at Juniper’s Sunnyvale, California, headquarters at 1194 North Mathilda Ave.?
Why that would be Jerry Yang at Yahoo HQ, 701 First Avenue, a mere half-mile away (see the Google map–oops!–below; click on it to make it larger)!
In fact, despite all the wrangling, Johnson and Yang still actually have a great deal of regard for each other, so one hopes the pair can all look forward to long CEO walks and lovely lattes together in the future.
(Kevin, Jerry will be right over with the welcome wagon full of purple and yellow Yahoo swag.)
