Microsoft’s game of thrones: How Ballmer and Gates finally lost favor
“As Satya Nadella puts his stamp on Microsoft Corp., he’s coming to grips with the tug of war over strategy and the clash of personalities that marked Steve Ballmer’s final years at the helm,” Dina Bass, Beth Jinks and Peter Burrows report for Bloomberg. “”
“Nadella, who succeeded Ballmer one month ago, took a step this week by unraveling part of a restructuring his predecessor put in place in one of his last acts as chief executive officer. Nadella appointed onetime Democratic political operative Mark Penn to the just-invented post of strategy chief and shuffled other executives to resolve an unwieldy setup Ballmer had established in the marketing department,” Bass, Jinks and Burrows report. “The new CEO is seeking to reshape a company whose main businesses are losing steam as efforts to expand on the Web and in mobile devices have been thwarted by Apple Inc. (AAPL:US) and Google Inc. (GOOG:US) Nadella will also exert his influence on the push into hardware, a strategy shift that fueled some of Ballmer’s fiercest arguments with the board.”
Bass, Jinks and Burrows report, “Microsoft spokeswoman Dawn Beauparlant said Ballmer declined to comment. He remains on the board, along with Gates, who stepped down as chairman to be Nadella’s technology adviser. John Thompson replaced Gates as chairman. Thompson, Gates and Nadella also declined be interviewed, she said.”
