Microsoft announces management overhaul, Elop departs
Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop is leaving Microsoft, after selling Nokia to the software giant over a year ago.
Elop, who helped engineer Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s handset assets, had joined Microsoft as part of the sale and was placed in charge of the company’s Devices & Services group.
Elop will be replaced by Terry Myerson, who will lead Microsoft’s newly formed Windows and Devices group, which merged the current Operating Systems group and Microsoft Devices group.
Elop’s departure comes as a result of a management shakeup announced on Wednesday, which is aimed at honing its focus on core areas including productivity and cloud computing.
“We are aligning our engineering efforts and capabilities to deliver on our strategy and, in particular, our three core ambitions,” Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said in a statement. “This change will enable us to deliver better products and services that our customers love at a more rapid pace.”
Apart from Elop, senior executives Kirill Tatarinov and Eric Rudder will also leave the software maker, after a “designated transition period.”
As part of the restructuring, Scott Guthrie will continue to lead the Cloud and Enterprise (C+E) team, while Qi Lu will continue to lead the Applications and Services group.
The restructuring will leave Microsoft’s senior leadership team with 12 executives, including Nadella.
Also chief insights officer Mark Penn will be leaving the company in September to form a private equity fund. Penn’s departure is unrelated to the engineering restructuring changes, Microsoft said.