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Elop Favored By Gamblers As Microsoft's Next Chief Executive

Posted by samzenpus on from the smart-money dept.

PolygamousRanchKid writes "A gambling website's favorite as Microsoft Corp.'s next chief executive officer is Stephen Elop, the Nokia CEO who has presided over a 62 percent decline in market value. Elop, a former Microsoft executive, has 5-to-1 odds to be hired as Steve Ballmer's replacement, according to Ladbrokes, the U.K.-based gambling operator. He leads a pool including internal candidates Kevin Turner and Julie Larson-Green and outsiders like Apple CEO Tim Cook — a 100-to-1 dark horse."

25 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Name game by Gothmolly · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sounds like a publicity stunt to me. It's close enough to Elon Musk that they can cash in on some of the buzz around 'hyperloop' and "isn't he the Tesla guy?" and "doesn't he build rockets?" to make them sound new and edgy and relevant.

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    I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
    1. Re:Name game by synapse7 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Elop sounds too close to "Flop", if we're only considering by name.

    2. Re:Name game by Capt+James+McCarthy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Elon Musk

      Every time I see his name, I think what a cool name for mens cologne.

      --
      There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
    3. Re:Name game by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 5, Interesting

      How are CEOs judged. Honestly.. I don't know. It seems to an outsider like me that names come up again and again even after they slam corporations to the ground.

      Carly Fiorina came up as a candidate. Why? Everything she touches turns to shit and H.P. barely survived her.

      There is a cult of personality around these people that need to be broken up.

    4. Re:Name game by bondsbw · · Score: 4, Informative

      Shareholders judge CEOs according to how stock prices have moved and how dividends have been released. These are usually the guys you have to please, over the term of a couple of years, to keep your job.

      An objective observer would more likely judge a CEO by the stability and growth of the company over the course of half a decade or more. It's not always about the money. Some great private company owners don't care much about bringing in a corporate profit, but rather they just like what they're doing and want to pay their employees and the bills. (But of course, once you hold a majority share in a company that is worth billions of dollars, it becomes VERY hard to resist an IPO.)

      There's also a big difference between a startup that is still on its way up vs. an established company. A company with its roots firmly planted, in my opinion, should value a CEO with the ability to continue pushing the company forward when market conditions provide overbearing competition and when economic times do not play well to the good or service being provided. Sometimes this means reducing cash in the bank and moving fiercely into related markets that are on the upswing.

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    5. Re:Name game by nitehawk214 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That is the beauty of getting into the CEO club. The boards of directors of all the other big companies are made up of C level executives, so once someone is in the club they can all vote for each other and guarantee themselves a giant paycheck. Even if they completely run a company into the dirt, they are guaranteed that their buddies in the C-Club will take care of them at their next position; because they will do the same on the boards they serve on.

      --
      I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
    6. Re:Name game by rtb61 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      A company that is stagnating basically needs to start a square 1 and re inject that creativity. It was always said that Paul Allen would have taken M$ in other directions to Bill Gates and Paul Allen was the real creative person behind M$, just got squeezed out by the hostility of Ballmer and Gates combined. So get Paul back in to set new directions for the two parts of the company M$ Office/Windows and MSN/gaming. They can leave Ballmer at M$ Office/Windows to squeeze the life out of it.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    7. Re:Name game by RoccamOccam · · Score: 5, Funny

      >To paraphrase "1984," some shareholders are more equal than others.

      Right author, wrong book: Animal Farm.

      Right. That would be Orson Wells. The original poster was probably confusing the shareholders with Morlocks, from one of his other books - The Time Machine (as in the movie, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme).

    8. Re:Name game by hebertrich · · Score: 3, Funny

      They're used to it , having someone who didn't loose billions at the helm might confuse them.
      They need someone to sink their ship really deep in the abyss and he seems to be fully qualified.
      Hope we see each other at the chapter 11 hearings. Keep an eye out on the upper floor windows for falling furniture.

      Fuzz

  2. Yes, pretty please by Kjella · · Score: 5, Funny

    An expert in tanking companies at the helm of Microsoft? I can't wait.

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    1. Re:Yes, pretty please by Cid+Highwind · · Score: 4, Funny

      The only thing that would make it better is if he were to bring in some superstars like Carly Fiorina and every Yahoo CEO from Jerry Yang onward to fill out the executive team...

      --
      0 1 - just my two bits
    2. Re:Yes, pretty please by richlv · · Score: 3, Interesting

      if elop goes, does nokia hire back whole jolla team and we get great phones with open os finally ?

      --
      Rich
    3. Re:Yes, pretty please by CRCulver · · Score: 4, Interesting

      we get great phones with open os finally ?

      Jolla won't be an open OS. The UI layer they've made for Sailfish is closed source.

      I used to be enthusiastic about Jolla, but it seems that Ubuntu Phone has stolen much of its thunder, and among the idealistic users who want everything to be open the Neo-900 project is gaining buzz.

  3. Burning Platforms v2? by Tridus · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can picture it now...

    Elop gets in. He sits down, and writes a memo about how the company is sitting on a burning platform and needs to change or die. He'll then adopt a bold strategy of switching the entire company over to... what? QNX maybe?

    Considering his track record, I find it hard to believe anybody thinks this is a good idea.

    --
    -- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
  4. Re:Wouldn't it be funny by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    H-1B1 only applies to Chilean and Singaporean nationals. Since he's Canadian, they can just list him as "computer analyst" and he can work in the US under TN status for a period of 1 year, renewable indefinitely.

  5. Kevin Turner = massive exodus by charnov · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Kevin Turner, Lisa Brummel, and Amy Hood are all despised within Microsoft... they are Ballmer yes-people and Lisa Brummel is directly responsible for destroying any shred of productive culture there. They all need to go.

    The employees want Satya Nadella or maybe Tony Bates... although many say it has to come from the outside... Sinofsky ;-)

    http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2013/08/steve-ballmer-is-going-to-frickin.html

    --
    [RIAA] says its concern is artists. That's true, in just the sense that a cattle rancher is concerned about its cattle.
    1. Re:Kevin Turner = massive exodus by h4rr4r · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What the employees want does not matter even a little.

      The current management put Ballmer in charge, they are going to select another Ballmer not someone who will change their culture.

    2. Re:Kevin Turner = massive exodus by h4rr4r · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I respectfully disagree. Ballmer represents their own culture, any change would be admitting they were wrong. I fully expect MS to shrink over the next several decades because of this. I can't think of any companies that have ever survived and recovered from that kind of MBA infection.

  6. Probably not by tbannist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Maybe Nokia was always supposed to be Elop's training company? You know, a company he can try stuff at and drive it into the ground before he gets his hands on the real thing? Maybe he was even supposed to run it into the ground the ground, kind of like Brewster's Millions but with a company?

    --
    Fanatically anti-fanatical
    1. Re:Probably not by Urkki · · Score: 3, Interesting

      No, coming back as Microsoft CEO was the deal he was given when he was sent to Nokia to destroy all its value.

      Considering how its value is up like 100% from the bottom, and likely to keep slowly creeping upwards along with WP market share in the short term at least, then if Elop's mission was to drive the value to the ground only, it failed.

      But don't worry, there's plenty of room for conspiracies still. Elop's mission could have been to install WP as a 3rd ecosystem as quickly as possible, no matter the cost (to Nokia's shareholders), and accepting a big risk of total failure (of Nokia as a company) and continuing irrelevancy of Windows in mobile space. The way Symbian was murdered certainly fits this theory.

  7. Whoever takes over will have a hard time by MikeRT · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ballmer left the company in shambles in terms of their standing and momentum in the industry. Whoever takes over is going to have to be very aggressive and will probably run head long into antitrust issues if they are too serious about rebuilding Microsoft's standing and momentum. What Microsoft needs at this point:

    1. Release Windows 8.2 with the start menu fully restored, Metro apps able to run on the desktop mode and Metro only a primary UI option on touch screen PCs unless the user configures otherwise (either way should still be an option).
    2. Release Windows RT 2 tablet in $200 and $300 32gb and 64gb options with full Microsoft Office. Microsoft needs to just flood the market with low cost, Kindle-like Windows tablets that'll run any traditional Windows app recompiled for ARM (another restriction that needs to go from Windows 8).
    3. Attack the living room not just with the XBox One, but alternatives to protocols like AirPlay that are open, documented and patent-free for other vendors to implement. Microsoft can isolate Apple even more by returning to its roots of being of one of the most open big vendors in the industry.

  8. Re:Tim Cook? by gtall · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Stock price doesn't mean diddley squat. GE is immense and their stock price isn't great but they do very well in their markets.

    And this visionary thing is overrated, Apple isn't going to produce a groundbreaking device in a new market for them every three years. No company can does that.

  9. Too Many Problems by tuppe666 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1. Release Windows 8.2 with the start menu fully restored, Metro apps able to run on the desktop mode and Metro only a primary UI option on touch screen PCs unless the user configures otherwise (either way should still be an option).
    2. Release Windows RT 2 tablet in $200 and $300 32gb and 64gb options with full Microsoft Office. Microsoft needs to just flood the market with low cost, Kindle-like Windows tablets that'll run any traditional Windows app recompiled for ARM (another restriction that needs to go from Windows 8).
    3. Attack the living room not just with the XBox One, but alternatives to protocols like AirPlay that are open, documented and patent-free for other vendors to implement. Microsoft can isolate Apple even more by returning to its roots of being of one of the most open big vendors in the industry.

    I love quick fixes. The problem with Microsoft is the the company. We are asking why an army of clever; highly qualified and paid individuals could release so many failures...obvious failures before release.

    Lets look at your fixes(Lipstick on a Pig) you address the unpopular Metro Interface failure, by having it there as a kludge; It was never about a start menu it was about creating an ecosystem with a consistent interface so they could force themselves into the mobile market(They use the word "ecosystem"), and cash in on the lockdown (store and hardware) to Microsoft product and services. The answer wasn't to use the advantages over mobile (10x power and screen real estate, good input, massive storage) they simply dumbed down a computer to a poor tablet. How about Microsoft accept its in competition and compete by producing the Best Desktop ever.

    Then you bring up cost. Microsoft walk around with 70% gross margins while its partners do with 10%-20%, and not only is office unwanted they also charge for that too. Traditional Windows Apps do not work on a tablet. No wonder the devices are considered overprices and its partners are turning away. How about Microsoft change their business stratergy?

    Bill Gates might have got into the living room with the console, but seriously its a $500, £430 in the UK and 500 Euros console (ignoring its anti-gamer launch) it is going against a $35 Device Chromecast. that already has an alternative to Airplay and works for iOS and Android. How about Microsoft stop selling hardware but sell software...hold on did Andriod just get another 6 Consoles.

    The bottom line is a few quick fixes...and these aren't are not going to fix the problem.

  10. The need someone who innovates less! by bryanbrunton · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Let's face it, Microsoft has recently seen a huge amount of innovation.

      - a completely new UI for Windows
      - gambling a couple billion dollars on Windows RT
      - locking down the XBox with draconian DRM

    These were HUGE gambles, Ballmer had HUGE stones. They were really betting the company on this dynamic new strategic path.

    It just so happens that this is innovation that really fscking sucked. They need a CEO who recognizes that Microsoft cannot innovate. It is not something that the company does well.

  11. Break the company up by jimicus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And I don't mean for "waah waah antitrust" reasons, I mean because I honestly think we'd see a hell of a lot more innovation in more productive directions. A parent company might hold majority shareholdings in the subsidiaries, but daily operations (including pretty much all strategic thinking) should come from the individual companies Microsoft would be split into, not from the big hulking brute that is Microsoft today.

    The idea being that

    Off the top of my head, you'd wind up with:

      - Home Entertainment. Gets the XBox. Without the "mustn't play nicely with others" mentality coming from the top, they could license DAAP and integrate with Apple, maybe use the xbox as some sort of media centre that can stream to devices around the house.
      - Operating systems. Gets Windows - both client and server. Because it's now effectively a separate company, they can build stronger relationships with others - the concern that there's a conflict of interest somewhere mostly evaporates.
      - Enterprise Software. Gets SQL Server, Exchange, Sharepoint, maybe IIS. Without the "must integrate everything 15 ways from Sunday and run only on Windows" push coming from HQ, there's scope to openly publish integration mechanisms.
      - Productivity Software: Gets Office, Visio etc. Opens the door for publishing an API that allows third party companies wanting to build a Sharepoint-alike and integrate just as seamlessly as Sharepoint does. (Or does Sharepoint just use WebDAV?)