Stephen Elop Would Pull a Nokia On Microsoft

Nerval's Lobster writes "A new Bloomberg report suggests that Stephen Elop, who's apparently on the short list of candidates to replace Steve Ballmer as Microsoft's CEO, would eliminate company projects such as Xbox and Bing while focusing resources on Office. Before he left Microsoft to join Nokia, Elop headed Microsoft's Business Division, so it's no surprise he'd want to focus on Office and the company's other, highly profitable enterprise software. But as head of Nokia, Elop made similarly bold strategic realignments that, while they probably looked good on paper, didn't quite work out. Specifically, Elop decided to abandon Nokia's popular homegrown operating systems, including Symbian, in favor of Microsoft's Windows Phone. That caused Nokia's share of the overall mobile-device market to dive into the single digits. At the time, Elop insisted he made the decision because Symbian and its ilk were incapable of competing in the broader market against Android and iOS; revelations by the Finnish media over the past few months, however, suggest that he'd been offered a generous cash incentive for selling off the company, which gives his 'strategic realignment' (which everyone knew would initially collapse Nokia's market-share, as its product pipeline emptied out) a whiff of self-interest. So while it's likely that a Microsoft run by Elop would make some decisive moves, his previous attempt at game-changing quickly transformed Nokia from a communications powerhouse into a second-tier competitor and (eventually) a Microsoft subsidiary. And by eliminating Bing and Xbox, Microsoft would be giving up completely on the search and gaming markets in favor of becoming more of an enterprise-centric company—something that could please analysts mostly interested in the company's bottom line, but basically an admission of defeat in the consumer realm."

Comments

Re:All in favor of Elop getting the job?

[Stormwatch]

Let me tell you why that's bullshit.

Until late 2010, Nokia's market share was around 70% -- uncontested leader, twice the size of Apple, four times bigger than Samsung, and consistently, immensely profitable. They had the largest ecosystem and the top-selling app store. Carriers and retailers loved Nokia. Customer fidelity was near absolute. Market analysts expected Nokia to remain the leader for years. Maybe Symbian was getting a bit long in the tooth, but MeeGo was on the way.

After the "burning platforms" and the move to Winblows Phoney, however... their market share collapsed overnight. Users, carriers, and retailers fully rejected it. While the press was drooling over the first MeeGo phone, they gave it a very limited launch and announced that no more would be made. Ratings companies now rank Nokia stock as junk.

You call this "a fairly good job"? Well, sure, taking in account that this was Elop's true goal all along: to sabotage Nokia, make its stock near worthless so that Microsoft could buy the whole damn thing. He achieved what he meant to, and killed Nokia while doing so.