Microsoft promotes three execs

Microsoft handed out new titles to some top execs on Wednesday. In an e-mail to staff, CEO Steve Ballmer announced that Mich Matthews and Yusuf Mehdi were both being upped to senior vice presidents from the VP level. Matthews leads the advertising team and has been overseeing the "realizing potential" ads that have been taking up a fair amount of prime time space in the past year.

Mehdi, meanwhile, has been heading the transition of MSN from money-losing Internet service provider to a profitable business backed by premium service revenue and online advertising. He's also been a key player in the company's effort to play catch-up in the search business.

The company also promoted Mike Delman to corporate VP, heading the global marketing communications unit, including advertising and events for most of Microsoft's business units.