“Microsoft Corp.’s board placed Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner on a three-person list of internal candidates to replace departing Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer, said a person with knowledge of the process,” Dina Bass, Peter Burrows and Aaron Ricadela report for Bloomberg.
“The other two internal candidates are business development and evangelism chief Tony Bates and Satya Nadella, who oversees the company’s cloud and enterprise business, said people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the search is confidential,” Bass, Burrows and Ricadela report. “Microsoft’s board also spoke with other senior leaders, including Qi Lu, who oversees Bing and Office, and operating systems chief Terry Myerson, before narrowing the internal list, said two people.”
Bass, Burrows and Ricadela report, “The board continues to refine its broader list of candidates and there isn’t a final shortlist, said people with knowledge of the process. External candidates such as Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally and former Nokia Oyj CEO Stephen Elop are still interviewing with the board’s search committee, said the people.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take:
Oh, Jobs, if we can’t have Flop to kick around, please, please please let them pick Turner. In fact, vice versa: Turner would be an excellent replacement for Ballmer when it comes to saying stupid things and liking whatever Ballmeresque “strategy” he dreams up, and liking it a lot. Microsoft making Kevin Turner CEO would be perfect: Ballmer II: For As Long As It Takes.
So, yes, please, now that’s he’s on the list, please let it be Turner. Flop is now demoted to our second choice, just like he was for beleaguered Nokia.
Related articles:
Nokia’s former chairman: We failed to identify the threat posed by Apple; Elop was 2nd choice CEO – October 17, 2013
Microsoft exec Turner mocks iPhone 4, dubs it ‘Apple’s Vista’ – July 14, 2010
Microsoft COO Turner: Windows Vista the most secure OS on the planet, including Mac OS X and Linux – April 13, 2009
Personally, I feel that Forstall is the better choice, and no, this isn’t sarcasm, or an anti-iOS7 FUD. For a while, he was at the helm of iOS. It wasn’t until iOS 7 that he got kicked out. If MS got him, maybe, just maybe, MS can finally create something worthwhile. If it means that Windows 9 isn’t an ugly piece of junk, then let him join.
Wow – I have to agree. Microsoft needs someone with a clear technological vision, experience with running an OS, and the balls to push big changes. Forstall did a lot of great things and had Steve Jobs vote of confidence.
If Microsoft leadership would focus on being the best in a few areas, instead of trying to follow every one of their competitors strategies, I would get behind them.
A Tim Cook / Scott Forstall battle would be a lot of fun to watch! But it would widely be seen as another symbolic win for Jobs, so I doubt Gates would consider it.
“If Microsoft leadership would focus on being the best in a few areas”
That would require a sea-change in corporate philosophy as well as structure. Microsoft has too much inertia to move that intelligently.
Microsoft is a totally different company to Apple so in what way would Forstall be equipped to run a business much of which he has no understanding of other than being unable to move on having reached a certain plateau and concerned himself with tweaking. Actually I tell you what on second thoughts he would be perfect.
Maybe or maybe not Forstall, but Microsoft definitely needs an outsider with a REAL software background (not the next Ballmer).
Being an outsider is important, because he (or she) needs to be brutal. Steve Jobs may have co-founded Apple, but he was the ultimate outsider when he came back as the “iCEO.” And he was brutal in his evaluation of Apple and what needed to be done to make Apple viable and relevant again.
Forstall at MS? That’s kinda like trying to put human DNA into a monkey. I say let MS evolve on their own DNA. They deserve it. They don’t deserve any help from an intelligent human being.
Send in the clowns… This Big Top may get a second lease, after all.
“Send in the clowns”. Umm…MS already had one, and he is leaving. Until this new CEO throws chairs, and makes death threats, THEN we can call him a clown.
In the area of software design, development, debugging and roll out, no one in Apple is better than Scott Forstall, least of all that idiot Ive, who has singlehandedly destroyed iOS 7 to reduce it to the pile of junk it is now.
At the end of the day I hope the job goes to Forstall which will be his Jobs-like second coming, but at Microsoft, which will show how sorely missed he is at Apple while that idiot Ive dawdles along with super thin fonts and other artistic gewgaws that are a usability nightmare.
After getting over the shock of iOS7, I now appreciate the change, and have a keen sense that the new iOS7 is not new at all, but has been what Ive and maybe a few others have been dreaming about for years.
I really get the sense that Ive has been shaking his head at the software design for a long time, wishing they’d get away from what he saw as garish, silly and generally unhelpful icons, layouts, etc all skeuomorphed.
I feel like skeuomorphism was inviting jeers from others about ‘Apple’s shiny software/animations’ being in place of ‘robust sophistication’.
Seriously, to me it seems that this one pursuit (by Forstall, and maybe others) set Apple back more than forward, and that which remains certainly looks silly (i.e. Mavericks)
I like skeuomorphism even if it means different things to different people, but it was getting totally out of hand under Forstall who was tweeking visual effects instead of taking the OS forward. The present design looks a bit of a mishmash graphically in places but I will judge it more on the next iteration rather than this one which I can live with and was a rush job no doubt. Fact is the OS for me works a lot better than the last two which had made my gen3 iPad increasingly like a brick.
You mean rather than how many cat hairs you can have on an iPillow.
Was this the same guy who thought it was a great idea to give away free concert tickets at the Honolulu Microsoft store? I swear Hawaii would still be a better place if it was still a Kingdom. You Dumb Yanks illegally took over an innocent nation and Brutally Forced US to accept statehood. This is a travesty! The UN should put us on the “illegal colony” list. Yankee Go Home!
>>You Dumb Yanks illegally took over an innocent nation and Brutally Forced US to accept statehood.
Sorry friend, but Hawai’i will always be under somebody’s control. It’s just too strategic for any country with a navy. If not the US, then it’s Russia, China, Japan or somebody else. That’s the way it’s been for territories on the crossroads all through history. Of course I’m just a dumb haole, but I’m one with perspective.
BTW you’re right about the free concert stuff.
“….but Hawai’i will always be under somebody’s control…”
Today on Kauai that would be Sygnenta, Pioneer, Dow and BASF, but no worries. We have a long tradition of independence.
>>We have a long tradition of independence
But not always a thoughtful one. I was on Kauai a few years ago when the the ferry protest was staged in Nawiliwili Harbor. What a dumb notion that protest was. The ferry would have provided a huge economic boost for regular people in the islands. It would have allowed craftspeople and small farmers to affordably increase their inter-island business. It would have made it less expensive for relatives to visit one another. The rationale of the protesters was “It will bring all those cars and bad people from O’ahu”. Well the cars are already there (it’s called Hertz), and people on O’ahu are perfectly civil.
There was one potential problem with the ferry–snakes and mongoose–but that could have been dealt with by a careful inspection policy. From the best I could see, the protest was an act of block-headed provincialism.
Kauai is a lovely island. I love hiking the trails. I like the people. But its economy is based too much on farming and tourism (people like me) and the ferry could have been a first step in building a more varied–and eventually much stronger–Hawai’i.
Think Different 😉
Uh…that was what I had NOT have had in mind when suggesting Forstall as CEO. This isn’t for revenge, or for sticking it to Apple for redesigning iOS, this is a chance for Microsoft to show the world the can at least make some OK decisions. If MS wants to redeem themselves, then Forstall for CEO. I hate MS, but I believe in forgiveness and redemption.
I think the position of Microsoft CEO should be hereditary. After all, they had a product called Kin.
Does Ballmer have any spawn, er, I mean children?
The outgoing Ballmer did such a great job, shouldn’t another Ballmer be given a chance to finish the company off – I mean finish the job? Ballmers forever, or at least for as long as it takes! (For some reason I picture Ballmer’s son looking and acting just like Spaulding in “Caddy Shack,” only bald.)
You know what else should be hereditary? Being the governor…er, I mean King or Queen of Hawaii. Nowadays, we have a bunch of Haole interlopers from the mainland trying to run things here. Take your white ass back to the mainland, and leave us alone. And by the way, Obama was born here. Since Hawaii is an illegally occupied nation, and not a state, he isn’t president. All you Yanks hate him anyway, so he should come home.
“Take your white ass back to the mainland”
Wow, not racist or anything right? Really, illegally occupied?
Sure thing, give us “white/asian/black/hispanic” folks back all the money, healthcare, welfare, and spoils we mainland folks spent in and on your country.
We’ll close down the universities, the hospitals, education system, government and remove all the military. We’ll see how well you do in the world without the infrastructure and protection. I’m sure China will help fund your new society.
We’ll leave you to smoke your crack and surf all you want. I’m sure you’ll do fine running around in grass skirts with hand tools for growing all your own food again now days.
I agree, I’m 100% in support of the idea. Aloha! Oh, and FU!
And this has to do with Microsoft getting what they deserve how? I think you MAY have dropped a little TOO much acid. And “grass hula skirts”? What is with the racism on this site? Keep it to the articles about Samsung. At least you are talking about the foreign country that everyone on MDN loves to hate.
Wow. You had the perfect opportunity to bash Obama, especially right after the Obamacare debacle, but then you decided to rant on something many people haven’t really heard of. Way to lose a perfectly good chance of sounding like Bottvinick!
My apologies for the above post. apparently some sort of acid flashback. What is really strange is that I never took acid.
Don’t worry about it. Acid, (especially Aphex Acid) is awesome…wait are you talking about raving to Acid Techno?
Well, Apple moved the COO to CEO so it only makes sense to copy Apple yet again.
Now that CEO Steve Ballmer has been shown the door, and Board Chairman Bill Gates is being nudged out, my vote would be for Satya Nadella, whose credentials are solid in enterprise & services where Microsoft is strong and can maintain licencing revenues indefinitely. IBM pulled it off, so can Microsoft.
Gates and Ballmer: the main villains of my youthful misadventures in computing are become historical curiosities like Jesse James and Cole Younger. The vengeful feelings are much diminished at this point in their decline. To tell the truth, it’s the success of the Apple way that gladdens me, far more than any satisfaction over the demolition of Microsoft’s plans for world domination. It gives me bright hope, always superior to simmering resentment.
I won’t mind if others feel like kicking them whilst they are down — I did a fair amount of that and with some glee — but increasingly I feel Google eyes on the back of my neck. I’m game to set aside old grievances and partner with old, washed-up bandits to help stop the latest megalomaniacs — the sociopathic stalkers, moving their creepy line ever closer to you and me.
Wait…so if M$ does indeed cater more to the enterprise market, similar in scope to IBM, then who will take over the consumer market. Apple is too expensive for the Hee Haw demographic, and I doubt the Chromebooks will be of any use to a general computer user. Where will the “good enough” demographic go to?
Sorry, it’s too early in the crusade to see clear portents. The waters are cloudy. But there are suggestions. Asymco has investigated the phenomenon of product adoption over time as a social process governed by learning. This type of analysis is ideally suited to the consumer market, which lacks the built-in constraints of business purchasing. If the theory turns out to hold water then Android “sufferers” will “learn” that their next purchase should be an iOS product. This of course is offset by the proposition that iOS fonts are too thin and icon colours garish. I place no bets.
True, but some people just never learn. Some are just so anti-Apple that they don’t want to think about it, and with MS gone, and Chromebooks not adequate enough for “real” work, could another company take the spotlight? Canonacal should jump at the chance on this. They have a great OS, and with M$ rightfully dying, they could have a chance at fame. And rightfully so, because Ubuntu is one of the best non-Apple OSes that I have had ever used. The Hee Haw demographic deserves at least some quality.
Exactly right. A great OS should be given a fighting chance at mass adoption. OEMs cowering in the post PC era ought to embrace anything new and good, understanding that change has arrived at the doorstep of their privileged upper-class club. Unprotected from emerging market forces, they should boldly eject the old guard, just as Microsoft has done, and move forward with urgency. I rather think all of them have waited almost fatally too long.
Will they copy Steve Jobs once again, and hand over the CEO seat to the COO? It just gets pathetic.
Yeah…Kevin Turner brought his buddy David Porter from Walmart with him. Their antics go way back. They did Microsoft stores…and even all the way back to this: http://macdailynews.com/2009/02/13/microsofts_new_retail_guru_porter_has_history_of_working_against_apple/
Turner could be JUST THE MAN to replace Balmer!
MDN…prophetic once again – “Watching Microsoft’s latest mess unfold and fold is going to be fun!“
Elop’s still my guy but Turner’s ‘tache is superb.
As long as it takes.
That’s not a ‘tache. It came from licking Ballmer’s ass.
I think Scott Forstall is the better choice than Elop. The big question is whether Scott Forstall can legally works for MSFT as there may be certain agreement between Apple & Scott prohibit him to take on the MSFT CEO role.
Interview question 1: “Please, poke out your tongue.”
For a supposedly ‘Confidential’ job search, this is certainly the most Public examination of a Heir Apparent to a departing CEO that I’ve ever seen. I’m fairly confident this is no accident, either: Microsoft must be leaking this information to allay investor concerns.
@Cristo: MDN has said that there won’t be a Windows 9. This should be i’Caled.
Could MSFT investors get any more concerned?
Hey MDN, you need to update your Nokia status from beleaguered to at least “stable”.
Now that the phone business that Jobs totally destroyed is sold to M$ and Nokia got rid of eFlop …the company is actually doing pretty well with it’s network&map&patent business and with more than enough cash to play with…just look at the stock price it has been going up almost every day for the last weeks.
IMHO Nokia made a smart move.. what do you do when you can’t compete with Apple? You sell and FAST! =)
Turner is the obvious choice. After all, we see how inspiring and effective the COO-turned-CEO of Apple is doing. Yes, you can read that both ways.
Turner is the obvious choice. He dresses for success.