“Even as Bill Gates weighs giving up his title of chairman of Microsoft Corp., he’s poised to remain involved at the company he co-founded in an area of its deepest need: crafting must-have products,” Peter Burrows, Carol Hymowitz and Dina Bass report for Bloomberg. “As the board prepares to appoint Satya Nadella as Microsoft’s next chief executive officer, it’s considering replacing Gates as board chairman, people with knowledge of the matter have said. ”
“Gates would remain a director and be involved in product development, focusing less on administration, the people said. He’s weighing going to work at Microsoft at least one day a week, a person briefed on the matter said,” Burrows, Hymowitz and Bass report. “Gates championed Nadella’s candidacy during the months-long CEO search, a person briefed on the matter said, suggesting that the two will be able to collaborate well. Nadella is an insider who’s well-versed in Microsoft’s tools for businesses, while Gates was instrumental in building innovative products that ushered in the personal computing age.”
MacDailyNews Take: Burrows, Hymowitz and Bass obviously wouldn’t recognize innovation if it drove over them. Gates is a thief. A Steve Jobs wannabe. If Gates is more strongly in the mix, expect the copying of Apple products to again ramp up at Mediocresloth. And Nadella is the wrong choice for Microsoft. This is going to be great!
“‘Bill’s product reviews were legendary, and Microsoft’s products would benefit from his input,’ said Todd Warren, a 22-year Microsoft executive who left in 2009. ‘My concern would be that the tech landscape has shifted away from the PC in recent years,'” Burrows, Hymowitz and Bass report. “Nadella has had leadership roles in cloud services, server software, Internet search and business applications. In tapping him as CEO, the board could be signaling it agrees with investors who contend the biggest shortcoming at the world’s largest software maker is a lack of top-notch, gotta-have products and services.”
MacDailyNews Take: Nonsensical. Mobile is whee Microsoft failed. That failure puts their whole business at risk. Nadella has no proven mobile experience. Smart longterm Microsoft investors – and oxymoron, we know – should march on the board with pitchforks if they give the CEO-ship to the server guy.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Ooh, Mr. Stylus/Keyboard is going to work an extra 8 hours per week on “crafting must-have products.” What are Microsoft trying to do, get Jony Ive to laugh himself to death?
Gates and Nadella. Tired and Mired™. The Undynamic Duo™ is the perfect pair for piloting Microsoft’s hurried descent to the bottom!
Related articles:
New Microsoft CEO faces challenges, to say the least – February 4, 2014
Satya Nadella? Seriously, Microsoft? – January 31, 2014
Microsoft said to be preparing to name Satya Nadella CEO – January 30, 2014
Gates! For as long as it takes!
You love for Gates is pathetic.
Dude! He’s the perfect choice to take over where Ballmer left off – re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
gates doesn’t do chairs, that was ballmer’s schtick.
This guy is the perfect choice.
They’ll need him to steer MS farther into the server and business infrastructure market after they realize that their mobile and consumer efforts are truly doomed.
Good news. M$ went for a safe option. Having Gates put in more influence will also have it’s effect.
I guess we should give the guy a chance but really the only response is:
For as long as it takes.
He could go grab N. Korea’s Red Star Linux and run with it against Apple as “innovation”. After all, he stole the “trashcan”function from Apple long ago…
Well, the combo (Gades-Nadella) is perfect to steer the Microsoft ship and carry on the legacy of Ballmer’s unwavering, laser-sharp focus on that iceberg…
Gates ego and refusal to just let go, is going to be the straw that breaks Microsoft’s back. His meddling should not be wanted or needed, yet, there he still is. How can you propose new things with Gates breathing down your neck? The man who spews the word innovation in all its forms, but is the least innovative CEO of any company in recent memory. The guy is a legend in his own mind. Unless Microsoft can get their efforts in mobile to be broadly accepted, they are doomed. If history is any lesson, it doesn’t look promising for them.
If Gates learned anything from his dabbling in charitable causes, it is that nothing is simple or easy to understand, let alone find a great new solution.
Bringing a person with an old software centric mind back into MS to help steer SS Microsoft 7 years after the “touch” revolution just seems archaic.
Maybe Bill will bring back the Zune? This time in colors!
Shit Brown for me lease.
Spoken like a M$ fanboy; resignation is a sad affair.
Sarcasm dude.
It’s like in the movie “Casino” where DeNiro’s character
was made the ‘entertainment director’ but he actually
ran the whole operation.
Bill needs to get back to working on his redesign of the toilet for third world countries. It will come in handy when the latest Microsoft dump eventually gets flushed.
BOB 2.0!
DOS X!
Zune 8!
Forming their own “Legion of Doom”
Apple NEEDS Microsoft to succeed.
Those who say otherwise, are ignorant about the market and how competition is vital to Apple’s survival.
If Apple didn’t have Samsung copying iPhone, we’d still be using iPhone 4. Do you believe that?
“If Apple didn’t have Samsung copying iPhone, we’d still be using iPhone 4. Do you believe that?”
No.
Apple is now resuming the manufacture of iPhone 4 for emerging markets.
Wow tech isn’t so wow…
Apple NEEDS Microsoft to succeed like a bed NEEDS bedbugs.
We’re not interested in your sleep habits.
If Bill Gates can somehow maneuver around obstacles imposed by the courts on MS years ago while, at the same time, reembark on predatory behavior while taking Apple’s IPs and profiting from them as any cases take their time winding through the courts in the manner of Samsung cases, then Gates should do well.
Microsoft has never “crafted must-have” products. Microsoft has bought products that might be classified as such (Excel, Powerpoint, Word, Kinect). Microsoft has copied products (Mac OS, iPod, iPhone, IPad) that resulted in Windows, Zune, WinPhones, and the Surface tablets.
The only Microsoft product that even comes close to being a “crafted, must-have” product is the XBox, and it just built on the Sony PlayStation. To expect Microsoft to suddenly begin “innovating” new products to compete with Apple is like expecting pigs to suddenly evolve wings.
Exactly. Microsoft has never translated much anything to “must-have.” More “must-NOT-have.” I think most sane souls are embarrassed and humiliated to carry around a Microsoft branded mobile device, such is their pitiful & painfully uncool record. The MS Titanic is still on course to that mirage hidden iceberg dead ahead, stopping only for a change of Captains.
The only Microsoft “must-have” product is Windows 8 Uninstaller Pro.
Not to mention, even when they have the advantage to copy another companies IP, they still do a half ass, inferior product. Microsoft has no class and wouldn’t know a good aesthetic if it hit them in the face. They are masters at mediocrity. The shit brown Zune is a perfect example.
I bought Word with my first Mac. Big red box with a single floppy.
Wasn’t available on any other computer but Mac. You’re to young to remember, but surely you’ve heard of Xbox, that was a good value as well.
Apple didn’t have a word processor and I thought Pippin was lame, so Microsoft has done something’s right.
You aren’t supposed to like them though, are you? MDN spoon feeds you all your talking points.
When Steve Jobs got fired as chairman at Apple, it was reported bluntly.
When Bill Gates got fired as chairman at Microsoft – let’s report that honestly too.