Kai-Fu Lee leaving Google

Kai-Fu Lee, the president of Google's Greater China operation and the subject of a bitter employee custody battle between Google and Microsoft, will leave the search giant later this month.

Lee, who left Microsoft in 2005 to take over Google's operations in China, is resigning from the company to start his own venture and will be succeeded by a Google employee, the company confirmed Thursday evening. Lee's departure was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

"With a very strong leadership team in place, it seemed a very good moment for me to move to the next chapter in my career," Lee said in a statement announcing his departure.

Kai-Fu Lee

(Credit: Google)

An expert in speech recognition technology, Lee founded Microsoft's China research lab in the late 1990s and worked at Silicon Graphics and Apple before joining Microsoft. Before joining Google, Lee had been working at Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., headquarters, focusing on new search technologies.

Google announced in July 2005 that it was hiring Lee, and Microsoft immediately filed suit in Washington state court against Lee and Google, arguing that Lee was violating a one-year noncompete agreement that was part of his Microsoft contract. Google later countersued in California court. Microsoft settled with Google in December 2005, without releasing terms of the pact.

Google put Lee in charge of its search efforts in China, with hopes of democratizing data in China. However, some three years after launching its efforts in China, the search company is still mired in an uncomfortable working relationship with government censors.

[ckanalley]

Actually, this was first reported by Breaking Tweets, an hour before WSJ. Really. Just thought you should know. Twitter users had dibs on this story. http://www.breakingtweets.com/2009/09/03/google-china-president-kaifu-lee-expected-to-resign/

[YankeePoodle]

breaking tweets probably does not have editorial overhead, but trusted sources (what goes into that i dont know). But any serious publication should strive for accuracy than speed. Its ok, to know Kaifu-Lee leaving Google 3 hours and 20 hrs late, someone's life is not at stake. But if you have an "inaccurate" story and there is a rebuttal from Google that would undermine the reputation of the news site.

[eltoro2827]

Twittering is lame.

[David Dudley]

Yep, Twitter is very lame. I've happily abandoned my account months ago.

[simontsmall_thebest]

haha.

I love twitter, but get a life. The time at which a story was presented doesn't influence the quality or impact of the story. I read this particular story and learnt something, so thanks Cnet.

To bring the commentary back to the core message, it's interesting to continually realise how un-democratic the Chinese government is. I wonder how long it will last with the global media engine and social media constantly revealing its weaknesses?

[Hunnter2k3]

Wait a minute, isn't this the guy who indirectly caused our monkey boy Steve Ballmer to throw a chair in anger?

[PixP]

I wonder what Google is throwing?

[dascha1]

I thought Lee retired in Derwent, Va. after he surrendered at Appomattox. At least that's what my speech engine came back with when I asked about this.

[dunkydomo]

Wow, and we shoud care for what reason?

RT
www.anonymous-web.be.tc

[Mr. Dee]

He seems to become bored with tech companies quickly.

[krln99]

He probably quit cuz Google is still getting its @$$ handed to it in China by Baidu.

[regulator1956]

Google stock is up about 50% since he was hired, though 35% off its highs since he's been there. Maybe he's fully vested on his stock and thinks there aren't a lot of reasons for it to go up that much in the near future.

[nSeika]

No idea on what work he?s continuing with ?
Building a new start up of his own ?

[gpenglase]

The obvious hole in this story is "what's he starting up himself?" that's what piqued my Internet in the story and the only thing missing. And yes, this is the guy that Ballmer had a fit about leaving. understandably. seems to be a heavy-hitter. which is, again why i wanted to know where he's gong and what he's doing.

While it's nice to have the news first, it's better to have the story right and even better to have it right and complete. half-way there anyway Cnet.

[tiffany520]

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