Microsoft Exec Peggy Johnson Joins Troubled Augmented Reality Startup Magic Leap as CEO (cnbc.com) 18
Microsoft executive Peggy Johnson will join Magic Leap as CEO in August, the startup announced Tuesday. From a report: Johnson joins the augmented reality start-up after leading Microsoft's M&A strategy and launching its venture fund as executive vice president of business development. She was hired by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in 2014 after a 24-year career at Qualcomm, where she worked in several roles, including running the internet services unit. At Microsoft, Johnson was a member of the company's senior leadership team and navigated Microsoft through major partnership deals and acquisitions, including its $26.2 billion purchase of LinkedIn in 2016.
Magic Leap's announcement comes weeks after founder Rony Abovitz announced in May he would step down as CEO, saying "it became clear to us that a change in my role was a natural next step." Founded in 2011, Magic Leap was the subject of extensive hype in its early days, and managed to raise about $3 billion from Alphabet's Google and other investors. But the company's first product, released in 2018 for over $2,000, showed lowered ambitions since the company's early demonstrations and did not sell well.
Magic Leap's announcement comes weeks after founder Rony Abovitz announced in May he would step down as CEO, saying "it became clear to us that a change in my role was a natural next step." Founded in 2011, Magic Leap was the subject of extensive hype in its early days, and managed to raise about $3 billion from Alphabet's Google and other investors. But the company's first product, released in 2018 for over $2,000, showed lowered ambitions since the company's early demonstrations and did not sell well.
strategy (Score:5, Interesting)
Unfortunately for Magic Leap, they have nothing worth acquiring.
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no point in buying it
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i can not help but wonder why microsoft sent peg over to magic leap
tough break for her
And Peggy. (Score:2)
Ah magic Leap, a Mind at work. This Theranos or Italian Tabletop fusion or , outdid all it's predecessors inf flesscing investors in four ways.
1. it chose a name that distilled the basis for people investing in magical hopes down to it's prmorial form "Magic leap:
2. Like "it" and "ginger" it refused to say what it was. Whereas Theranos spun bullshit and fake results./
3. Like Madoff they pretended to be reluctant to let you invest unless you would just take it on faith and not second guess or withdraw yo
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No. A few rich idiots put money in who often lose money on bad investments. And it's not famous outside tech circles. Hell, not even in all tech circles.
WeWork is a far better modern scam touchstone. Famous. Has Softbank as a marquee investor who also will go down as one of the worst investors of the era.
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There are CEO's who are good and bad at different things.
There are a CEO's who are good at starting up the company getting it off the ground. But really sucks at day to day operation. So after getting a product and funding, it may make sense to hand over the leadership to someone who can just get things done. The Vision has been given, now we need to implement.
The implementation CEO may not be good at taking on the next new idea.
Magic Leap may just need to get things done, product out the door. In this ca
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Yes, the point is that Magic Leap has given up on the visionary. What they've got now is what they've got. Which is basically a more expensive and crappier version of what several other companies are offering.
Since the new CEO seems to be an M&A type, they're probably doing the smart thing: make yourself attractive to one of those other companies to buy up for the people they're managing to continue to employ, and any patents.
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Unfortunately for Magic Leap, they have nothing worth acquiring
What are you talking about, they are an AR company. A better source of technology needed to usher new paradigms in the virtual age does not exist!
Hmmmm (Score:4, Insightful)
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This is nothing at all like that. Nokia was actually worth something. :-)
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