The Seattle search startup Positronic has been acquired by eBay for an undisclosed sum. The news was first reported on Mary Jo Foley’s Microsoft blog last week, and was later confirmed on eBay’s company blog. It’s an interesting and somewhat sad story, as it means the departure of prominent Seattle-area tech executives, as well as the loss of some potentially intriguing (if stealthy) Internet technology.
Positronic was founded in 2007 by a pair of former Microsoft search execs, vice president Christopher Payne and general manager Dane Glasgow. As far as I can tell, they never released a product, but had been working in the areas of data mining, machine learning, and predictive models, all applied to Web search. Now, after less than two years, Payne and Glasgow are headed back to the corporate machine—and going with them is any progress they’ve made in improving search.
According to eBay, the execs are relocating to headquarters in San Jose, CA, where Payne has assumed the new role of vice president of search, and Glasgow is vice president of engineering. The goal of the Positronic acquisition, eBay says, is “to help with efforts at leveraging machine learning to provide a more predictive and compelling customer experience.”
Author: Gregory T. Huang
Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003.
Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
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