A reader tipped me to this over the weekend, but I could not confirm it till just this afternoon, and out of respect for the folks who worked with and for Udi, I decided not to post without confirmation. I pinged five other sources since, and Udi confirmed this afternoon. He is leaving A9 for Google. More as I have it.
Update: My initial coverage of Udi and A9 is here. As I’ve said in the past, Udi is one of the leading lights in the search world, on nearly everyone’s “Top Brains in Search” list. And now he’s gone to Google. I have asked him for an interview and very much hope he’ll agree, so we can all hear why he left Amazon – which is clearly making moves toward Google’s space, and vice versa – and went to Google.
Udi will be replaced by Dr. David Tennenhouse. From Amazon’s release:
A9.com, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), today named Dr. David Tennenhouse the company’s new Chief Executive Officer.
Tennenhouse is a renowned technologist and seasoned executive. He joins A9.com from Intel Corporation where he served as Vice President of the Corporate Technology Group and Director of Research. In addition to building Intel Research, he developed Intel’s proactive computing vision, drove several Intel Capital Investments and laid the technical ground work for its new Digital Health Group.
Prior to joining Intel, Tennenhouse was Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Information Technology Office where he guided programs in several areas, including search, datamining, information management, machine learning and distributed computing. Additionally, Tennenhouse held positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and the Sloan School of Management.
PS – How long do you think John Doerr can remain on the boards of booth Amazon and Google?