“Microsoft is reorganizing its Entertainment and Devices Division (EDD) and when it’s finished the two people that have largely defined it for the past few years will be gone. EDD group president Robbie Bach and J Allard, the group’s chief experience officer and chief technology officer, are leaving those positions and Microsoft as well,” John Paczkowski reports for AllThingsD. “Bach is said to be retiring; Allard — who’s been on sabbatical recently — is simply moving on, though he’ll remain an advisor to the company.”
“Interestingly, Microsoft isn’t replacing Bach. Instead the company is splitting his responisbilities between Senior VPs Andy Lees and Don Mattrick, who will oversee the company’s gaming and mobile businesses, respectively,” Paczkowski reports. “Mattrick and Lees will report directly to CEO Steve Ballmer who is evidently taking on more of a role in Microsoft’s consumer devices efforts, which — with the exception of the Xbox 360 — have stumbled in recent years.”
The full text of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s memo announcing the moves int he full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The bigger the role Ballmer assumes, the better.
Excerpts from a BusinessWeek interview with Apple CEO Steve Jobs, October 12, 2004:
Steve Jobs: Apple had a monopoly on the graphical user interface for almost 10 years. That’s a long time. And how are monopolies lost? Think about it. Some very good product people invent some very good products, and the company achieves a monopoly. But after that, the product people aren’t the ones that drive the company forward anymore. It’s the marketing guys or the ones who expand the business into Latin America or whatever. Because what’s the point of focusing on making the product even better when the only company you can take business from is yourself? So a different group of people start to move up. And who usually ends up running the show? The sales guy… Then one day, the monopoly expires for whatever reason. But by then the best product people have left, or they’re no longer listened to. And so the company goes through this tumultuous time, and it either survives or it doesn’t.
BusinessWeek: Is this common in the industry?
Steve Jobs: Look at Microsoft — who’s running Microsoft?
BusinessWeek: Steve Ballmer.
Steve Jobs: Right, the sales guy. Case closed.
Hoist yer mugs! May Steve Ballmer remain Microsoft CEO for as long at it takes!
Best news I’ve heard all day…… What better way to help Apple grow to the largest tech company in the world!!
Best news I’ve heard all day…… What better way to help Apple grow to the largest tech company in the world!!
Ballmer is awesome. He must rule with an iron ass and his enemies must “kneel before Ballmer”.
“Ballmer is looking more and more like Peter Boyle these days.”
I’m sorry but that’s probably the nastiest thing ever said about him………..about Peter Boyle I mean.
I just bought more APPL on this news!
Oops. Better call my brier and change it to AAPL
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I bet Apple, Google or some other tech company will come and scoop up all this talent that MS is bleeding.
Amazing, can`t wait for his next visionary idea, MS branded slap-chops.
Microsoft will still be a player, given exchange, sharepoint and other more corporate based stuff, and they are good at kind of thing. They just won’t be Apple’s competitor on the home and comsumer level.
Who is on the Horizon? HP. They have deep pockets, they make there own hardware, and now they have a the beginning of a good software with the recent purchase of Palm Web OS.
I like MSFT’s strategy. I like it a lot.
For medical reasons, I don’t think that Ballmer should get a larger anything.
Ballmer assuming a larger role sounds like a trip to IHOP.
When people are out of their depth but refuse to accept it then when they have the power to do so they will simply seek more power and more scapegoats till the inevitable implosion occurs. Serious case of Emperors clothes amongst Microsoft directors and shareholders and won’t they live to regret it. The rest of the World can rejoice however at their every excruciating minute of denial.
For as long as it takes. So say we all!
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
I like their strategy. I like it a lot!
After reading J Allard’s “goodbye note”
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/j-allards-goodbye-note-no-chairs-were-thrown/6334
it is clear to me the central problem at Microsoft. Their problem is that their key leaders think of themselves as innovators and industry leaders, when they are not. Yes, Microsoft still has some influence on the tech industry, obviously. But I think they (Microsoft’s leaders) actually believe that the tech world still revolves around them.
Once Microsoft’s leaders are replaced by people who think of Microsoft as the “underdog,” Microsoft will become more relevant (again). That includes the leader at the top. In the 1990’s, Microsoft did realistically become the center of the tech world, and that’s when they were acting like they had something to prove. Once they got there and started to rely on the Windows and Office cash cow, and believe their own press releases, they started to coast and slide back down.
Apple is becoming the center of the tech industry today, and they ARE acting like they have something to prove. They have been ever since the return of Steve Jobs. As long as Steve Jobs is there, I don’t think he will let Apple’s leadership become complacent in their overwhelming success.
I hope MS and google merge and Ballmer runs both companies.
This guy gets it
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again here. Microsoft is the problem, not the execs who are leaving or their lack of hardware design.
Private and business users of Microsoft OS software realize it dominates the world. Exposed to Microsoft OS in many forms, needing to use it in our daily lives, we want something better when we can make the choice.
We have seen Microsoft at its best and worst and really don’t want it in our personal lives when we can avoid it. Microsoft needs to put blame where blame is due.
Even if we have the best big screen and sound system on the block, there are other places we will go to for entertainment.
Microsoft is a software company and they’ve failed to get that right. How can they expect to be a hardware company on a level with Apple?
Bob Forsberg, on May 25th, 2010 at 4:28 pm
It is very bad form to take a quote and blow it completely out of proportion, adding your own biased rant for partisan effect. But that’s what passes for journalism these days and I can’t resist this one today.
Ballmer states of Bach on his retirement: “…I want to close by thanking Robbie for the incalculable contributions he has made to Microsoft over the years. …”
This from the guy who paid Bach’s salary all these years. Let me help you with the math, Monkey Boy.
sum each years’ salary, bonus, cashed in options from day one to last day of employment. Use TVM adjustments for better accuracy. Now take NPV (estimated) of pension and stock options not yet exercised. Be sure to include that golden parachute. Add for the grand total. You can get surprisingly close to the present net worth of a person using very simple mathematics. I learned net present value calculations in high school. Didn’t you go to Harvard???
So, Ballmer, you overpaid dick who took someone else’s spreadsheet app, tied it into the ubiquitious corporate Office bundle, admittedly improved it until 2004, at which time layers upon layers of crap continued to be heaped onto Excel until it was no longer a desireable program for efficient work by the average user, let alone the highly experienced pHd who now has to call Tech Support to find elementary functions previously easy to find and use — go ahead and hit ctrl-alt-del on your little corporation’s entertainment division. It speaks volumes about how your incompetence keeps you several metres behind where the puck was a minute ago.
but i digress…
Ballmer must have pictures of Gates with a whale or something, I just can’t continue to believe our good fortune!!!
Steve Ballmer is the number one reason I don’t own any M$’s stock!
The man sucks as a CEO!