“Since mid-July, three interlocking events – all of them considered highly unlikely six months ago – have unfolded in quick succession, unsettling Microsoft managers and employees and roiling its share price,” Bill Rigby and Eric M. Johnson report for Reuters.
“First, CEO Steve Ballmer rejiggered top management as part of an ambitious plan to remodel the company around devices and services rather than software. Six weeks later, he announced his retirement within a year, sending shares soaring,” Rigby and Johnson report. “Ten days after that, he unveiled a $7.2 billion purchase of Nokia’s phone business, a move that ate up the stock’s recent gains.”
“‘Like Wall Street, there was initial euphoria with the announcement for employees,’ said one 15-year veteran who has worked in a number of units at the company, in response to Ballmer’s retirement and a change at the helm of a company that no longer sets the pace for technological innovation,” Rigby and Johnson report. “‘But he is as much a symptom as the actual problem. This whole crazy re-org will still happen. And nothing will really change.’ he said. ‘Among many of my fellow employees – both new hires and long-timers – there is a recognition that Microsoft has lost its way.’”
Rigby and Johnson report, “25-year-old software engineer in the Bing search engine unit said she was ‘excited’ about what was to come. ‘I don’t expect a big change after his (Ballmer’s) retirement. Microsoft is a big company. A new CEO won’t change much,’ she said. ‘In the last company meeting, Steve talked about the ‘One Microsoft’ spirit. People liked that idea. Probably, the new CEO will continue that.’”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: People liked the ‘One Microsoft’ idea.
We certainly did. We like their strategy. We like it a lot.
She’s excited about what’s to come: Finding out which team she’ll end up on, Flotsam or Jetsam.
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Tagged: Apple, Apple roadkill, Ballmer T. Clown, beleaguered Microsoft, bloodbath, DCW, Dead Company Walking, failure, flop, microsoft, Stephen Elop, Stephen Flop, steve jobs, Uncle Fester 
