Elop and Others Leaving Microsoft, Myerson Taking Bigger Role

jones_supa writes: Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and "Scroogled" mastermind Mark Penn are leaving Microsoft as part of a fresh company reorganization. "We are aligning our engineering efforts and capabilities to deliver on our strategy and, in particular, our three core ambitions," says CEO Satya Nadella in an e-mail to employees today. Alongside Elop and Penn, Microsoft executives Kirill Tatarinov and Eric Rudder will also leave as part of a transition period. Tatarinov used to head up Microsoft's business solutions group, and Ruder was responsible for the company's advanced strategy. The reorganization will see Windows chief Terry Myerson take on more responsibility. Myerson will take over a new team called Windows and Devices Group. He will be focused on Microsoft devices and the engineering of Windows.

Comments

Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[ArmoredDragon]

You misunderstand. Stephen Elop just fulfilled his destiny created by Steve Ballmer: Appear competent while being incompetent, and destroy the world's largest handset manufacturer by making sure it never picks up Android so that it becomes an easy takeover target.

Now that his destiny has been fulfilled, Microsoft no longer needs his services.You misunderstand. Stephen Elop just fulfilled his destiny created by Steve Ballmer: Appear competent while being incompetent, and destroy the world's largest handset manufacturer by making sure it never picks up Android so that it becomes an easy takeover target.

Now that his destiny has been fulfilled, Microsoft no longer needs his services.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[ArmoredDragon]

Oops major editing mistake, now I appear incompetent.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[cfalcon]

...so did you just fulfill a destiny created by Steve Ballmer?

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Ralph Wiggam]

So Nokia's board, who hired Elop, and the CEOs before Elop, have absolutely no blame in Nokia's downfall?

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Ralph Wiggam]

Adding to my previous comment-

Here's Nokia's stock price over the last 20 years. Stephen Elop became CEO is late 2010, right when the stock price hit 10. Of course it got worse, but you can see that Nokia was on its way out before he showed up.

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=NOK+Interactive#{"range":"max","allowChartStacking":true}

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[chill]

Great! You're now qualified to announce that you'll be running for President on the Republican ticket in 2016. Best of luck and may the best sound-bite or hairpiece win!

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[gbjbaanb]

four negatives in a row

I believe this is easily parsed:

Stephen Elop, Mark Penn, Kirill Tatarinov and Eric Rudder.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[CptPicard]

In hindsight, I am actually starting to feel that the Microsoft move was the right one exactly so that Nokia could make their handsets a takeover target. Devices were quickly becoming commoditized; Nokia had not managed to create a content ecosystem; and as yet another Android manufacturer they could not have brought much more to the table than companies like Samsung.

Of course WP hasn't taken off, but that Nokia managed to offload its handset business to MS in time was genuinely a positive thing for for company. Most importantly the patents were kept in the company, and the networks business seems to actually have more future growth potential for a strong engineering company than rectangles any Chinese firm can churn out at massive quantities.

I'm a happy shareholder since 2012.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Uecker]

The networking unit had trouble at that time. The smartphone unit was highly profitable and growing faster than the competition in absolute sales (the quarterly reports are all available). And yes, i don't deny that Nokia had problems before in this area (despite profits and growing sales), but "on its way out" is far from the truth. The numbers simply do not support this. If your sales grow faster than from your competition while you are profitable you are clearly not "on the way out".

Mastermind?

[PvtVoid]

Calling the guy who came up with Scroogled a "mastermind" is a bit of a stretch, if you ask me.

"our three core ambitions"

[roc97007]

Apparently, one of which is to become a much smaller company.

Does he really talk like that?

[QuietLagoon]

Nadella said in an email to employees: "We are aligning our engineering efforts and capabilities to deliver on our strategy and, in particular, our three core ambitions. This change will enable us to deliver better products and services that our customers love at a more rapid pace."

And is he really under the impression that customers love Microsoft products?

.
Most of the Microsoft customers I talk to use Microsoft products either because they are required to do so at work, or the Microsoft product came with the computer they bought.

I have yet to hear one customer use the word "love" in relation to any Microsoft product.

Re:Microsoft will fall

[lgw]

Apple hasn't charged a premium for a better phone since maybe the first iPhone. It's just modern jewelry. And when you're buying a status symbol, as long as it's distinctive it's worth what you paid for it. Like a mechanical watch, an iPhone says "marvel at my disposable income and middle-class buying habits".