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Satya Nadella Named Microsoft CEO
Nerval's Lobster writes "As widely expected after last week's rumors, Satya Nadella has been named the new CEO of Microsoft. Nadella is Microsoft's third CEO, after co-founder Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. He's been with the company for more than twenty years, eventually becoming executive vice president of its Cloud and Enterprise division; Nadella and his team were responsible for the creation of 'Cloud OS,' the platform that powers Microsoft's large-scale cloud services such as SkyDrive, Azure, and Office 365. Under his guidance, Microsoft's revenue from cloud services has grown by several billion dollars over the past few years. In his email to employees, Nadella said that he was 'humbled' by his appointment, and that he had asked Bill Gates to act as a close adviser in the months and years ahead." He devoted much of the rest of the email "to explaining his philosophy of technology, and how that will ultimately influence his leadership. 'The opportunity ahead will require us to reimagine a lot of what we have done in the past for a mobile and cloud-first world, and do new things,' he added. 'We are the only ones who can harness the power of software and deliver it through devices and services that truly empower every individual and every organization.' A lot of tech companies would disagree the assertion that Microsoft is the 'only' company capable of merging hardware and software into forms that businesses and consumers find appealing, but Nadella must do his best to reassert his company's position as a technology leader. Nadella indicated near the end of his email that he would follow through on the 'One Microsoft' strategy formulated under Ballmer, which includes a massive reorganization currently underway." Reader rjmarvin notes that "Nadella will take over as CEO immediately, allowing Steve Ballmer to retire early," and reader SmartAboutThings says that "John Thompson, a lead independent director for the Board of Directors, will take over the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors that Gates held."
Well, after being responsible for Office 365, what could possibly go wrong?
Hate Ballmer all you want but that dude knew how to make money.
did you forget to take your meds?
In other words, Microsoft is going to proceed with a vision which may or may not be of interest to consumers, and once again tell us what we want instead of listening to us.
So now the same idiot who was in charge of XBox being an always on-line nuisance is going to ram this philosophy through the rest of the product lines.
They might find this to their detriment.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
It's a way of being polite and classy, and saying "I know there are a lot of really qualified people around me, and your selection of me has forced me to honestly reflect on my weaknesses." It's more a communication to his peers who were just passed over for the job than to the underlings who were never in the running.
Now, did you really need that explained to you, or were you just running your mouth?
I've been on Slashdot long enough to know that unless Linus accepted the CEO spot, whoever got it was going to get a lot of hate here.
The only thing I can say is that Microsoft is in dire need of engineering, and they promoted an engineer to the top spot. I think that's refreshing. What happens from here on out depends on what the roadmap looks like, but if the Surface Pro 2 is any indication, they are actually going down a good path on the hardware end of things. Time will tell on the software end.
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
Because storing your private/confidential information in a cloud is a stupid idea, because you don't really have control over your data.
I think your tinfoil hat is on too tight. There are plenty of cases where the data isn't all that confidential. It's not really all that hard to store confidential things locally or offline while using cloud storage for less sensitive items. We use Google Drive in our company to store work instructions and forms. If someone at NSA want's to look at those then they can go right ahead. It's nothing that requires deep levels of secrecy but it does require efficient controlled distribution and multiple person access.
I think he is obsessing about his charity more and more, and even a ceremonial roll is too much. Also, leaving the board is like a vote of confidence in Nadalla. "See I had to babysit Steve 'developers-developers-developers' Balmer, but this new guy is totally fine."
They are a 300 billion dollar company and between the 4th and 6th largest company in world (depends on fluctuating stock prices). I realize you probably get all of your info from Slashdot comments, but in the real world they are doing quite well.
We need Elop, not Nadella!
No worries - Elop will still be well rewarded for his efforts. Expect a new VP in MSFT soon.
(I only wish this were a conspiracy theory...)
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Honestly, I think it's really a mixed bag. Microsoft is of course continuing to make money, and some of their recent products have shown noteworthy improvement. On the other hand, it's been clear that they've been floundering a bit for years. They've had several major blunders and screw-ups that would have buried any company that didn't start out with a monopoly in a lucrative market. That is, if they hadn't had a steady income from Windows/Office/Exchange, from customers who pretty well have to buy those products whether they like it or not, then they wouldn't be able to stay in business selling their other products. And even those products have been mishandled.
But you're right, yes, they continue to make massive amounts of money from those products in spite of the mishandling. But "doing quite well"? I would say that if they were doing quite well, they wouldn't have dropped Ballmer.
Office 365 is subscription office for individuals (with other perks like some cloud storage and Skype credits)
Because that's just what I need when I'm typing a business letter. Videochat.
If Microsoft ran a restaurant each sandwich would come with a bowling ball.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.