http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/projectgranola http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/projectgranola Microsoft's in-game advertising executive Carol Koh Evans has left the company, rejoining wedding-planning site The Knot as its COO. Prior to Microsoft, Evans led The Knot through its IPO in 1999 as the company's head of corporate development. Evans is the second major media executive to bolt Microsoft this year. She follows Joanne Bradford, who left the company to join Los Angeles-based ad agency Spot Runner in March. Evans's departure is another blow to Microsoft's plan to grow its online business internally — "organically" as part of "Project Granola," as the company calls it — following the company's failed bid to acquire Yahoo.

]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=389922&view=rss&microfeed=true Sure, Microsoft would buy Facebook, but management knows Zuckerberg's not going to sell — and unlike Yang, he controls his company's board. As for Yahoo, well, "Yahoo can twist," one source told BoomTown. "Microsoft has lots and lots of other options." Redmond's favorite? Granola. Microsoft's internal plans for a post-Yahoo reality are code-named "Project Granola" because the company now wants to grow its online properties "organically," like every hippy's favorite breakfast food. But to us, the name seems utterly fitting in its blandness: Microsoft chairman Bill Gates told the WSJ that Microsoft's big plans include more "advances" in search, more marketing and more meetings in Redmond, Washington. That kind of bureaucratic strategy sounds like management needs a high colonic, not just more dietary fiber. (Photo by Adry Long)

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