“Less than 24 hours after the launch of Windows Live Messenger, Microsoft corporate vice president Martin Taylor, who oversaw the product’s launch, has made a surprise departure from the Redmond company. Taylor was a 13-year veteran of Microsoft and a top advisor to company CEO Steve Ballmer,” Nate Mook reports for BetaNews.
“Before becoming a corporate VP of Windows Live and MSN in March, Taylor spearheaded Microsoft’s ‘Get the Facts’ campaign that responded to the threat from Linux and open source. He was expected to play a major role in shaping the Windows Live strategy, and was featured in a Microsoft Q&A on Monday,” Mook reports.
“‘Given Martin’s role, yesterday’s Q&A and the way Microsoft departures are typically disclosed, I would characterize his exit as sudden–and unexpected,’ commented Jupiter Research senior analyst Joe Wilcox. ‘Most certainly, it’s a blow when any company loses a veteran executive. But, as much as I hate to admit it, anyone can be replaced,'” Mook reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Rockin’ Rod” for the heads up.]
Reuters reports, “The departure comes at a time when Microsoft is struggling to solidify new sources of revenue growth. Microsoft did not detail why Martin Taylor left the world’s biggest software maker after the 13-year company veteran was appointed in March to lead marketing efforts for Windows Live.”
“Taylor’s departure follows the decision announced last week by Microsoft’s co-founder and the world’s richest man Bill Gates that over the next two years he would ease out of a day-to-day role at the company to focus more on philanthropy,” Reuters reports. “Gates, who also stepped down last week as chief software architect for Microsoft, passed the technical mantle to Ray Ozzie. Ozzie joined the software maker last year and is at the heart of its push to maintain its dominance by transforming software into services that generate an ongoing stream of revenue instead of just a one-time sale.”
Reuters reports, “‘The fact is that with Ray Ozzie as chief software architect he probably wants to have his own team of people around him,’ Bajarin said. ‘In a lot of cases, people from the past don’t fit in.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: In a lot of cases, rats don’t stay aboard sinking ships, either. What would you tell Steve Ballmer if you were his “top advisor?” Those jokes just write themselves! We’ll leave them to you below. And, come on, Windows Live? Yeah, right. Of all the companies to which we’d entrust our data via the Internet, “The King of Insecurity” Microsoft is dead last on the list.
Advertisements:
• Introducing the super-fast, blogging, podcasting, do-everything-out-of-the-box MacBook. Starting at just $1099.
• Get the new iMac with Intel Core Duo for as low as $31 A MONTH with Free shipping!
• Get the MacBook Pro with Intel Core Duo for as low as $47 A MONTH with Free Shipping!
• Apple’s new Mac mini. Intel Core, up to 4 times faster. Starting at just $599. Free shipping.
• iPod. 15,000 songs. 25,000 photos. 150 hours of video. The new iPod. 30GB and 60GB models start at just $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.
• iPod Radio Remote. Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. Just $49.
Related article:
Bill Gates to transition out of a day-to-day role in Microsoft – June 15, 2006
Only 24 hours? I didn’t think paycheques usually cleared that quickly.
Get the facts? Like the Iraqi minister of disinformation during the war? “The American military is dying in the dessert like a snake with a broken back” while explosions are heard at the airport in the background.
Ballmer should hire Ben Stern to be his top advisor. Stern’s advice would be absolutely perfect:
I told you not to be stupid, you moron.
Shut up! Sit down!
What’s the matter, are you stupid?
Mr. Ballmer….your fly is open!
“Less than 24 hours after the launch of Windows Live Messenger, Microsoft corporate vice president Martin Taylor, who oversaw the product’s launch, has made a surprise departure from the Redmond company
As the vp was running out the front door, a flying chair soon followed, backed up by Ballmers booming voice “and don’t you ever come back!!!”
In other news. Microsoft abandons Windows Vista to license Apple’s OS X. Dropping the beleaguered MS Windows OS in favor of the superior Apple platform. MS will seek future revenues from XBox, mouse and keyboard sales.
In a comment – wishing not to be identified – a MS spokesman said, “We just got sick and tire of the virus problems – that and all the new Apple like features were stripped out of Vista”.
Microsoft teeters from 1 setback to another…and STILL they dominate the OS market. Amazing.
Your snakes are funny Metryq! You after dinner habits even funnier!
Is a broken back the only way you can get them into a dessert bowl? Do you add cream and sprinkles after?
This is the sign of shrinking. More to come
The begining of the end of MeCrow$oft Era.
Rise, Luke rise…..
————————————-
Er…., I mean, Rise, Apple, rise…………
I don’t need to know every last detail of what happens at M$. The M$ articals are out numbering the Apple articals most of the days of the week these past few months. Give us a break! Everything that happens at M$ doesn’t have significant impact on Apple if any. I know things are slow until WWDC, but between Sony, Intel, M$, Google and Dell, we have to hunt for any steady Apple news on this site. C’mon MDN. Get it together!
MDN word= read
How ironic.
Microsoft is imploding, the time is ripe for Apple to take over.
If Bill Gates was such the good hearted man he pretends to be, he should just give Steve Jobs the reins, he’s immensly more qualified to dictate the worlds most used operating system.
Dam that John Scully.
“We have to let go of a few things here. We have to let go of the notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose.”
-Steve Jobs, Aug 6, 1997
Will the last one out please turn off the lights!
Hah! Does anyone remember the “anti UNIX, Get the Facts” campaign?
You know, the one that Microsoft ran on UNIX servers?
The one, that when it was publicly noted to having been run on UNIX servers, was switched to MS servers, immediately hacked and shut down for days?
I do!
BWAHAHAHAHA!
He finally got around to trying Mac OSX and realized that he had waisted 13 years of his life!!
I found it so funny that a company that continues to lie and bully and break the law ran a ‘Get the Facts’ campaign.
And the fact it was running on UNIX servers makes it even funnier.
As for when they switched it over to Windows and it got taken down for days, well I needed to change my pants.
Micro$oft – providing mediocrity for the masses since Windows 3.1
I would not be at all surprised if Taylor quit more because of the Ozzie thing than anything else. It is hardly unusual for senior people to leave “at a convenient time” after a shake-up not that far above their level. Egos and personalities and woulda-shouldas come into play and suddenly “hey, I just brought home this huge project, that’ll look good on my resume, maybe I can make CIO somewhere”.
Bob & Jim
That is an interesting story, about the unix and microsoft servers.
Have you got a link for that?
There is a big change going on a Microsoft – starting with Gates announcing he is stepping down. The old Gates, Balmer and all their cronies will be leaving in the next 1- two years. New people, new ideas will replace the Gates/Balmer deadwood. Gates was great at stealing and implementing ideas; but a terrible manager. Balmer (Gates´s college roommate) is just plain terrible.
But if bright, smart, aggressive people move into management slots – look out Apple.
I just want to tell everyone that last night I downloaded and installed the vista beta on my shoddy old Compaq. There are two words to describe it:
Utter Nightmare
The Worst thing I have ever done (with the exception of using Windows for years before switching). I actually didn’t get it to install. Some kind of error kept the files from being copied from the DVD (which was clean and the reader was clean, so it wasnt a dirt issue.) So I guess I didn’t actually install it at all, but what I had to go through to get it onto a DVD, let alone attempt to install it on a clean drive and clean DVD drive. My God, I don’t know who Microsoft think they are, but they are not a good company, not at all. You would think the largest software giant in the entire world would make it easier to do something as simple as install a Beta! A Beta! Not even a full release (although the difference between the two is little to none).
All I wanted to do was see exactly how it matched up against OS X, how M$ completely ripped everything right from the Mac (again) and attempted to make it their own. I couldn’t even do that. It was simply ridiculous. I honestly don;t think that this OS will be ready in 2007. at least not the first half.
At this rate, this will really be Apple’s big break. Finally, the rightful company will be heading the computer industry, and we can start making up for 20+ years of living in the dark.
MW: pressure.
Could you imagine anyone replacing Steve Jobs?
The company is dead when he leaves.
Gates leaving MS is a story. This guy, who nobody’s heard of, who runs a part of Microsoft nobody cares about, is not.
THIS IS *NOT* MAC NEWS!
burn… BURN!!!!!
ozzycross101 “I actually didn’t get it to install.”
Well, then you have a personal problem and everything you wrote is a total waste and 0 credibility.
Imagine a Windows person said the same thing about OSX. It sucks, its terrible…oh, yeah, I never really even installed it….but it sucks because I am too stupid to figure out how to install it.
Dumb.
I know several who have installed in and like it. Their remark – hey, just like Apple!
Bob,
I remember. Microsucks admitted that they switched their servers from Winblows Server 2003 to Linux because of security concerns. They did this for something like 6-9 months back in 2003 or 2004. Sorry, no link here, but it is true.