Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Microsoft Businesses Technology

Elop and Others Leaving Microsoft, Myerson Taking Bigger Role 121

Posted by Soulskill from the fixing-bad-fits dept.
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.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Elop and Others Leaving Microsoft, Myerson Taking Bigger Role More

Elop and Others Leaving Microsoft, Myerson Taking Bigger Role

Comments Filter:

  • Elop just fulfilled his destiny. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ArmoredDragon ( 3450605 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @12:37PM (#49930057)

    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. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ArmoredDragon ( 3450605 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @12:38PM (#49930065)

      Oops major editing mistake, now I appear incompetent.

    • Honestly, I'm willing to believe that actual incompetence plays a large factor here.

      Yes, Microsoft was pretty much always going to fuck over Nokia with the "all Windows all the time" crap they did. That was pretty transparent.

      But that doesn't mean neither Elop nor Ballmer weren't incompetent.

      Elop could have been both incompetent and a plant intended to shift Nokia to Microsoft stuff. In fact, I assume that's the case.

      • The problem with attempting to assess his competence on slashdot is that people just assume that the goal is "the company makes more money" or "the stock price goes up." But in reality, if they're chasing dollars in a corporate environment the goal isn't to increase the stock price. The goal is often for the stock price to go up and down at convenient times, without (clearly) violating any rules. Other times the goal is more opaque. You can't follow the money, because they have tools to move it around where

      • "... actual incompetence plays a large factor..."

        You are not the only one who thinks that.

        The cover of the January 16, 2013 issue of BusinessWeek magazine has a large photo of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer with the headline calling him "Monkey Boy". See the BusinessWeek cover in this article: Steve Ballmer Is No Longer A Monkey Boy, Says Bloomberg BusinessWeek [businessinsider.com]. The BusinessWeek cover says "No More" and "Mr.", but that doesn't take much away from the fact that the magazine called him Monkey Boy -- on it

    • Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Ralph Wiggam ( 22354 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @12:53PM (#49930197) Homepage

      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. (Score:4, Informative)

        by Ralph Wiggam ( 22354 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @01:00PM (#49930259) Homepage

        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. (Score:5, Informative)

          by Uecker ( 1842596 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @02:24PM (#49930953)

          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".

          • So the stock price lost 75% of its value in less than 3 years because everyone on Wall Street is a complete idiot?

            • Re: (Score:3)

              by Uecker ( 1842596 )

              No. What does this have to do with what I said? The stock price depends on a lot of things. But yes, one of the reasons the stock price was low was certainly that Nokia was underperforming in the smartphone market relative to the expectations investors had. But this is something else than being "on the way out" which would imply that they already essentially lost. If you add more sales than your next best competitor and are profitable you are obviously not "on the way out", even if you disappoint Wall Stree

        • Elop's first actions were to gut things. No attempt was made to improve the company.

          • Either the Board of Directors hired him to "gut things", or they hired him to improve the company, and then sat there doing nothing while he did the opposite. Either way, they're responsible.

        • Notice how something big happened in 2008 which had aftershocks in Europe a couple of years later. Everything was going down. Not so spectacularly as the freefall of Nokia after Elop though.

          • You think it took 2 years for the US "credit crisis" to impact Europe?

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by dbIII ( 701233 )
              No, I don't "think", I KNOW, as does everyone that was paying attention at the time, that the bailouts in Europe in 2008 left the cupboards bare for that later problems that hit really hard two years later in that second crisis. Thus "aftershocks" on top of a pretty shaky situation. I'm sure you noticed. Everyone else did.

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

        Of course, but it is polite not to blame the victim even if the victim did start a relationship with a useless CEO/wifebeater.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Trogre ( 513942 )

        So Nokia's board, who hired Elop

        I see, so I guess you could blame the Trojans for opening the gates. Fair enough.

        I wonder what company he'll help next.

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

        Their mistake was going with Windows Phone. Even Microsoft has made a big mistake creating it to begin with. They're trying to inject a very non-disruptive smartphone platform into an OS market segment, and consumer OSes tend to be a market of only two major competitors with practically no room for a third.

        Microsoft executives and fans insisted that Microsoft has to have some kind of mobile presence in order to have a future, which is dead wrong. That would be like saying EMC, Oracle, or Redhat need a mobil

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by udippel ( 562132 )

          Alas, wrong on a number of accounts.

          Me, and a good number of other people, including *nix-people, have recently acquired a very competitive Microsoft Lumia. I guess, it gets subsidized by MS for all that it has included from the side of hardware as well as software. If they keep offering prices below comparable phones of the two major competitors, price alone will make them one of three equals.

          EMC, Oracle, RedHat have income beyond the consumer market paying for OSes, while MS lives on income through OS for

          • MS lives on income through OS for customers and some notorious office suite.

            Correct, and that mainly comes from enterprise customers, who the most part don't even touch Windows Phone.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dbIII ( 701233 )
        I'm sure they have many millions of blames in their bank accounts due to choosing to be more loyal to Microsoft than the company they were supposed to be working for.
        Remember that they didn't pick Elop from a list of successful CEOs - they were offered him by Microsoft and there was nothing at all in his history to recommend him as being suitable to run a company of such a size.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

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

      What makes you think is mission is complete? There are still lots and lots of other companys he can break and sell of. Every Parasite needs a *living* host... On a completely unrelated topic, anyone happens to know who the CEO was at Macromedia for less than a year, before they got eaten alive by Adobe...?

    • 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.

      But there is nothing to prevent Nokia from re-entering the handset market, if they wanted to. But the truth is that the margins on handsets are increasingly thinner, w/ the major competition b/w Apple and Samsung, w/ Mot and Blackberry holding on to the remains. While Windows Phone was a good platform, it failed to attract the major apps, and now, Nokia too is a winner by no longer owning it.

      Nokia is still profitable selling their telecom gear, which will probably remain the core of their business.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by udippel ( 562132 )

        For tablets, the Windows 8.1 Metro look is actually better, while for laptops, the Windows 7 look is.

        Exactly. I am a *nix person who recently acquired a Lumia because I consider it the most intuitive of the two in the reasonable price bracket.
        While 8.X is simply c**p on the desktop. And once you've seen it both on desktops and small gadgets, it is totally clear that the designers had tiny touch screens. Desktops usually don't -> that's Windows 8 for you!

    • It's funny you say that. I always thought Mr Elop's mission is to destroy nokia so Microsoft could buy it at pennies. I thought his mission accomplished.

    • Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by CptPicard ( 680154 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @02:21PM (#49930935)

      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: (Score:2)

        by Uecker ( 1842596 )

        If you want to sell a division, you don't run it into the ground first. No, this wasn't good for Nokia.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jrumney ( 197329 )

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

      Or maybe they do need his services again. Watch where he goes next very closely. That is the industry Microsoft wants to fail in next.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Nyder ( 754090 )

      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.

      Why did you repeat yourself 3 times?

      • Because I typed the message elsewhere on a smartphone and copy pasted it. Only I didn't see that it actually copy pasted because the desktop UI is kind of broken (the mobile one is worse though) and I didn't realize it the paste was successful all three times until after I had already hit the submit button.

  • But Linux will not win either. Because of the controlling behavior of Chinese manufacturers, hardware drivers will always be an impossible problem to solve. This means the Apple has a achieved checkmate. Windows is loathed, Apple is well-liked, and Linux is hobbled.

    • Apple? Really? Those same chinese manufacturers will ensure that Apple's game plan of squeezing a premium out of commodity hardware will eventually fail.

      They will not be able to come up with miracle iDevices perpetually -- eventually they'll hit a misstep or two, and be put in the exact same situation as Dell and HP.

      • Exactly. When there's plenty of $200 or cheaper Android and Windows Phone devices that do a very good job, it's not going to be long before people refuse to pay $700 for and iPhone. I'm surprised they've lasted as long as they have. There is no reason to pay such a high price for a phone. I don't see any with really compelling features. Perhaps the Lumia 1020 with it's 41 megapixel camera has a feature that no other phone does, but other than that, there doesn't seem to be a single phone out there that ca

        • Re:Microsoft will fall (Score:4, Insightful)

          by lgw ( 121541 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @04:40PM (#49932171) Journal

          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".

          • 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.

            It's not though, it's just a good tool for getting a job done and it has about the same "status symbol" status as buying a Ford F150, the iPhone is the most common smartphone in the world, it really couldn't be less exclusive. They sold something like 10 million of the things in the first weekend and people buying a Galaxy or a HTC One or G4 aren't buy those because they can't afford an iPhone it's because they don't want an iPhone.

            an iPhone says "marvel at my disposable income and middle-class buying habits".

            Yep that's certainly what I think when I see all those kids, part-time McDon

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by sootman ( 158191 )

          Last year I got a phone with Windows Phone 8 for $59* (I still can't believe it that's possible) just to mess around with. Even as a hobby, I couldn't stand to use it. The OS was JUST THAT HORRIBLE. It was stupid and annoying and deeply flawed. If my choices were a) that phone for $59 or b) an iPhone for $650, I would choose b) in a heartbeat. Oh, wait, actually, I did. (I'm on T-Mobile so I actually pay full price for my phones.) I returned the phone within 30 days.

          Paying $700 for a good phone vs. $200 for

          • I'm actually surprised that you found Windows Phone to be such a bad OS. I recently switched to it from Android, and I couldn't be happier. What was it that you found so bad about Windows Phone? They've made some updates to it in the past while in usability. If you still have that old phone, I would boot it up to install the updates to see how you like it.

            My biggest problem with the phone is lack of apps. There's some apps that I used to use an Android that aren't available on Windows phone like Strava.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by sootman ( 158191 )

              Windows Phone OS (whatever it's called this week) just had so many bad details, it was like walking around and constantly tripping on things.

              One example: I wanted to run with a white background instead of black. When doing that, the white-on-transparent icons disappeared.

              https://www.dropbox.com/s/15o7... [dropbox.com]

              Things like that might have been fixed in 8.1, but 8.0 was the third major release of this UI (after 7.0 and 7.5) and they should have caught a lot of things like that by then.

              There are a lot of places where

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bondsbw ( 888959 )

      Except that Apple is starting to look like they are out of (good) ideas, Microsoft has breathed fresh life into its consumer and development spaces, and Linux is more legitimate and necessary than ever.

  • Mastermind? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by PvtVoid ( 1252388 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @12:43PM (#49930111)

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

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by faway ( 4112407 )
      Haven't you heard? Techies are all geniuses according to journalists! The obvious falsehood of that claim is harder to address, as it requires *work*, whereas it is so easy to be a cheerleader. Tech journalism is a joke.

      • Tech journalism is a joke.

        More like an oxymoron.

      • If nerds didn't desire quality sources of information about what is new in the technology sector, then I would agree it is a joke.

        But no, actually it is just pathetic. And the most pathetic thing is, if somebody did a good job at it they would probably get a lot of readers from high value demographics. But it is impossible; editors are apparently compelled by some powerful force to cut corners continuously, even without any information theory analysis of how many corners would be too many. If they ever catc

        • But it is impossible; editors are apparently compelled by some powerful force to cut corners continuously, even without any information theory analysis of how many corners would be too many.

          I believe the cutting-corners kind of thinking runs along these lines: "We cut ONE_THING and our profits went up 2%. If we cut TWENTY_MORE_THINGS, we'll have 40% more profits!" Somehow, they fail to realize that cutting everything won't get you more and more profits. Cutting out one or two inefficiencies? Sure, that

  • "our three core ambitions" (Score:5, Funny)

    by roc97007 ( 608802 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @12:50PM (#49930165) Journal

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

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by sconeu ( 64226 )

      Fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency.... and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.

    • "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,"

      Hard lessons learned the hard rather than easy way:

      1. Innovate rather than copy and spread FUD, check!
      2. Don't attack in advertising ("Scroogled") a beloved thing like Google, check! Burger King learned this the hard way in the 1970s.
      3. Hiring managers who fiddle while Rome bur

    • our 3 core ambitions are

      Create more personal computing; reinvent productivity and business processes; build the intelligent cloud and integrate business decisions . Ah, our 4 core ambitions are more personal computing, reinvent productivity, build intelligent cloud, integrate business decisions and drive market excellence... , our 5 core, no. amongst our core ambitions are reinvent productivity and business processes; build the intelligent cloud, integrate business decisions, drive market excellence and get

  • "We are aligning our engineering efforts and capabilities to deliver on our strategy and, in particular, our three core ambitions" is CEO speak for, "We fired some folks."

  • I Used to Work For Microsoft (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    ...and then I left. Like a lot of people, I thought working at Microsoft would be great. A chance to work for the mothership, as it were. I duly applied, made it through my three interviews, was hired and began work. Almost immediately, I noticed how fractured the company was internally. They had no real mobile strategy and still don't. I noticed the backbiting and political shenanigans that plague most businesses were present as well. Internally, Microsoft is very poltical, much more so than I imagined. So

  • I have an idea (Score:2, Insightful)

    by slashmydots ( 2189826 )
    Here, let me run MS for a second.
    - Fire everyone responsible for Windows 8's design
    - Fire anyone who thinks charging for products over time is a good idea
    - Fire anyone responsible for UEFI and attempt to press criminal and civil charges against them for it
    - Fire all H1B workers and hire Americans or green card citizens
    - Fire anyone who thinks releasing a new mega-update to Windows every year is a good idea and strongly suggest they go work for Apple
    - Fire anyone who thought touchscreens would take off

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by DrPeper ( 249585 )

      Actually, although probably worded a bit on the extreme side. You do have some good points.
      - Windows 8 was a poor design, but it was better than Windows 7.
      - Software as a service is something that I too am completely annoyed with.
      - UEFI is to this day a uniquely HORRIBLE concept, and I'm surprised the government hasn't stepped in on this one.
      - H1B worker expansion is a complete joke, I think Congress is finally waking up to this inescapable fact. But then they never cease to astound me with their stup

    • Here, let me run MS for a second.

      - Fire everyone responsible for Windows 8's design

      Which bits of Windows 8? The UI or the kernel?

      The kernel is probably the best ever out of Microsoft; the UI not so much. And the person most responsible for the UI (Steven Sinofsky) is already gone.

      So, which group or groups did you want to fire?

      • Loading drivers in a similar manner as hibernation pre-boot is a horrible idea considering drivers are how viruses bypass the UAC most of the time. The order in which it turns off hardware devices is misleading and dangerous on all Windows 8 laptops. The whole EUFI thing is BS. UAC basically doesn't even work at all on a basic level and they haven't fixed it since Vista. So really the kernel isn't anything special aside form performance modifications.

    • So basically you want to carry out a bunch of your own personal vendettas. Why do you think the board or the shareholders should be interested?

  • Ok, so NOBODY ever leaves a position of power and/or authority of their own will. History is replete with a plethora of examples of this. The only way people leave positions of power is by force. Usually arrest, assassination, or execution. So WHO has enough power to force these MICROSOFT executives to leave? I find the explanation that they did so of their own free will not supported by history. I'm also quite aware that they will be paid handsomely to leave, but this is always just a front to make

  • Does he really talk like that? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by QuietLagoon ( 813062 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @01:31PM (#49930505)

    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: (Score:3)

      by ljw1004 ( 764174 )

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

      Let me "google" that for you:
      http://www.bing.com/search?q=i... [bing.com]

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

      I love staying away from Microsoft products. I'm not their customer, but I'm one customer of other businesses.

    • You obviously don't read the comments section at arstechnica. Tons of Microsoft fanboys over there. Though I think many of them are actually Microsoft employees so I don't know if that counts as "customers" if it's all bought from the company store.

  • Ok so let's start a pool! Where is Elop going next??? I've got the Apple, Google, and government squares. Who's next?

  • "We are aligning our engineering efforts and capabilities to deliver on our strategy and, in particular, our three core ambitions,"

    In other words, they are bajooling in order to slatinate their gibleglopp for maximum jastoodo.

Slashdot Top Deals

Any circuit design must contain at least one part which is obsolete, two parts which are unobtainable, and three parts which are still under development.

Close