Last week, Microsoft confirmed that Eric Hadley, the general manager of worldwide marketing for Bing and the division's Brand Entertainment head Sean Carver were fired "for violation of company policies related to mismanagement of company assets and vendor procurement." Now more details have been revealed about the circumstances surrounding these firings.
According to AdAge.com, one of the violations was that Hadley authorized a first class ticket on a flight from New York to Seattle for Carver, even though Hadley had no such authority to do so. Hadley also reportedly paid a firm named Co Collective a fee of over $1 million, even though they were not an approved vendor for Microsoft.
Finally, the story claims that there were unnamed issues with purchase orders for the company's three story Bing Bar which Microsoft created for January's Sundance Film Festival in Park City Utah. The venue attracted a number of celebrity actors, musics and other notables.
The odd thing is that Hadley's efforts to market Bing had generated positive vibes within the company; he was often called "Microsoft's Mr. Fun" after he got Bing to help a book launch for hip hop artist Jay-Z in Miami.
Business Insider got a brief comment from Hadley who said that that working at Microsoft for the Bing division was "the best experience of my life" and would work there again if asked. He would not comment about the specifics about his firing.
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