Edit: Another perspective:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/10/nokia_ceo_analysis/
Summary: Stephen Elop, the President of Microsoft’s Business unit, is leaving Microsoft to become the CEO of Nokia. Who will become the new head of Office at Microsoft?
Stephen Elop, the President of Microsoft’s Business unit, is leaving Microsoft to become the CEO of Nokia.
Nokia’s CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo will step down Sept. 20. Elop will take the Nokia CEO reins on September 21.
Elop ran the Information Worker, Microsoft Business Solutions/Dynamics and Unified Communications Groups Business. He joined Microsoft in January 2008 from Juniper Networks where he was Chief Operating Officer.
He was one of the four presidents at Microsoft and a member of the senior leadership team. Elop’s Office-chief predecessor was Microsoft veteran Jeff Raikes, who left Microsoft in 2008 and is now the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
My ZDNet colleague Larry Dignan is wondering whether a Microsoft man can fix Nokia. I’m wondering who Microsoft will appoint to replace Elop. No word on whether it will be an insider or an outsider.
Elop’s teams have been working with Nokia for more than a year on getting various Microsoft products, like Office Mobile and Communicator to work on Nokia smartphones.
As of Elop’s departure, CEO Steve Ballmer will now have two huge parts of the company reporting directly to him. With the departure of former Entertainment & Devices Chief Robbie Bach, announced earlier this summer, Ballmer will have the mobile communications business, gaming and now Office all reporting to him until new presidents are named.
Update: Here’s Ballmer’s letter to the Microsoft troops about Elop’s departure.
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Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).
Freelance journalist/blogger Mary Jo Foley has nothing to disclose. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). I do not own Microsoft stock or stock in any of its partners or competitors. I have no business ventures that are sponsored by/funded by Microsoft or any of its partners or competitors.
Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 25 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.
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