Microsoft, meanwhile, is “over” with trying to acquire Yahoo!, so it is now poaching its employees, Yahoo’s VP of Search Technology Sean Suchter just left Sunneyvale for Redmond.

This is a new, old kind of warfare, I think, and it reminds me a lot of General Electric’s chairman, John F. Welch Jr., who earned the nickname Neutron Jack on his reputation for eliminating people while leaving building intact.  In this case, the attacking party leaves the company intact but strikes at the core of the asset: in NYT’s case (a print media company) it’s the advertisers and in Yahoo!’s case (a #2 in search), it’s the brains behind… the algorithm and unit organization.