AOL’s Biz Dev SVP and Strategy Chief Heads to Spotify

Top AOL dude abandons ship to head to hot music start-up.
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Awkward! As Microsoft Marketing Event Opens, Its Longtime Marketing Head Announces Surprise Retirement

Timing is everything and, sometimes, very awkward. Today at its Redmond, Wash., campus, Microsoft is hosting a splashy online “marketing leadership summit” titled “Imagine 2011″–a gathering of top marketing execs from across the globe, most of whom are advertising clients of its online division. Also today: Its longtime head of global marketing, Mich Mathews, announced her departure–to the surprise of many Microsoft execs here, in fact–via a report in Ad Age.

Exclusive: Microsoft Mulls Legally Poking Facebook Over Ad Talent Raid

Microsoft–furious over a recent talent grab of its top advertising exec by Facebook–has been considering a wide range of options, including legal action to block the move, according to sources close to the situation. While it might not come to that, tensions between the two companies, who have partnered closely in the past, are running high over the hiring of Carolyn Everson. She had been head of global ad sales at Microsoft and has been hired to be VP of global sales at Facebook.

Sony Ericsson Aims to Play Its Way Back Into Android Smartphone Lead

In an interview, Sony Ericsson’s chief technology officer tells Mobilized how the company aims to capture the lead in the Android market through quick adoption of new versions and by tapping the technology strengths of its parent companies.

Early Adopter: Pothole-Reporting App SeeClickFix Raises $1.5 Million to Help You Be a Squeakier Wheel

It’s a fine line between keeping your potholes filled and walls graffiti free and being a civic tattletale. Civic nuisance reporting app SeeClickFix lets you toe the line, and just got another $1.5 million from O’Reilly AlphaTech and Omidyar to help users keep at it.

Longtime Facebook Biz Dev Leader Ali Rosenthal to Depart

Alison “Ali” Rosenthal, a veteran of the Facebook business development team, will leave the company at the end of this week, she told NetworkEffect.

Exclusive: Mickie Rosen to Join Yahoo as Audience Head

Yahoo is hiring former News Corp. and Disney online exec Mickie Rosen to run its Audience unit, which includes the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s powerful content sites, sources said. Rosen will report to Americas head Ross Levinsohn, who has worked with her before, both at News Corp. and Fuse Capital. The move is Levinsohn’s first management rejiggering since he took over last year, and there is likely to be more to come.

Top Microsoft M&A and Strategy Exec Charles Songhurst to Depart Company

Charles Songhurst , one of Microsoft’s top corporate strategy and M&A execs, is departing the company, according to several sources. Sources said he was leaving for a new opportunity, and he is not the only big business-development-related departure recently.

New Miramax CEO Lang Talks Digital Options for Movie Company

While the news has been be out there for a month, Miramax officially confirmed this morning that former News Corp. exec Mike Lang was named CEO of the Hollywood movie company. What will be interesting about that for digital content players will be to see exactly what the man who was deeply involved in deals to buy the Myspace social networking site and also create the Hulu premium video service will do with Miramax’s rich trove of more than 700 award-winning films in its movie library.

Intern Becomes Real Live Blog Dude–ATD Hires Drake Martinet

It is always nice when an intern makes good, and that is entirely the case with Drake Martinet, who joins All Things Digital–as of yesterday, in fact. We could not be happier. Plus, we knew he was our kind of geek after he agreed to spend the night in a tent next to Robert Scoble, to cover last year’s Apple iPad release. Drake will be working on a range of things for ATD, from social and multimedia efforts to site analytics to discovering and writing about promising but nascent tech start-ups.