WSJ: Chris Payne leaving Windows Live search division at Microsoft

WSJ: Chris Payne leaving Windows Live search division at Microsoft

Market sources are claiming that Microsoft is going to lose the senior executive leading their Live Search division. The Wall Street Journal reported in a news item that Chris Payne, corporate vice president of Windows Live search is planning to leave the company to form his own company.

His departure could mean massive restructuring in this department at the software giant.

Payne was also one of the executives looking after the Microsoft’s Windows Live Shopping service. The report does not make it clear whether the decision to leave is his own or the company is letting him go. Microsoft has been failing to dent Google’s advantage in the search engine market.

Market analysts have said in their report that the Microsoft’s search business is “massively underperforming” against Google in both the incidence of search queries and in advertising revenue.