3rd key manager at MSN Microsoft will be leaving

Microsoft's MSN division is losing another key manager with the departure of Raja Abburi, general manager of its communication-client products, who told his team this week that he's leaving the company.

Abburi is the third manager to leave MSN over the past year, but a spokeswoman said his resignation was a personal decision and not the result of any changes at MSN.

Retaining talent is a growing concern at Microsoft as the company matures, its stock idles and veterans are courted by startups and faster-growing competitors. MSN is also in a transition period, after merging in September into the larger Windows division.

Abburi said he's not leaving for Google or because of any turbulence related to the merger. Instead he wants to start his own business in the Seattle area.

"I've been at Microsoft a long time; I'm happy with Microsoft," he said. "I've always wanted to do a startup."

In his position, Abburi, 40, was responsible for MSN communication products, including MSN Messenger, one of the group's most successful and competitive products. In addition to competing with the text-messaging services offered by America Online and Yahoo!, MSN Messenger is pushing further into telecommunications and facing new challengers such as Google and Skype.

In addition to Abburi's departure, MSN lost the manager of its portal and content group in October. Hadi Partovi, who led the development of the Start.com portal that's a centerpiece of Microsoft's new "Live" Web service, also left to pursue his own venture.

Earlier, MSN lost content manager Scott Moore to Yahoo! last April.

Abburi leaves Feb. 15.

A native of the south India state of Andhra Pradesh, Abburi graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur and worked at Microsoft 16 years. Earlier he started the digital-rights management group in Windows Media and worked on products such as Windows 95 and Windows 98.

Abburi leaves MSN on a relatively high note. MSN Messenger usage is up over the past year and a new version with more Internet telephony capabilities, renamed Windows Live Messenger, has entered testing.

"There's never a good time, so as the next wave of products start, I thought it was a good time," he said.

As of November, MSN Messenger was the second-most used instant-messaging service in the U.S., with 27.8 million users, or 18 percent of the market, up from 26.8 million users in November 2004, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Other leading U.S. providers include AOL with 52.9 million users and Yahoo! with 22.3 million users.

Brier Dudley: 206-515-5687 or bdudley@seattletimes.com