Nokia Names Microsoft's Elop As New CEO 140
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by
Soulskill
from the embracing-and-extending dept.
from the embracing-and-extending dept.
itwbennett writes "Nokia has tapped Stephen Elop, former president of Microsoft's business software group, to become its new CEO effective Sept. 21. Elop will replace Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, who loses his board seat immediately and will step down from the CEO position on Sept. 20. Microsoft said Elop will leave immediately, but the company doesn't seem to be rushing to fill the vacancy at the top of one of its largest divisions. 'I am writing to let you know that Stephen Elop has been offered and has accepted the job as CEO of Nokia and will be leaving Microsoft, effective immediately,' Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer wrote in a letter to employees late Thursday."
Microsoft? (Score:2, Insightful)
A very, very weird choice...
Windows [mobile]/[phone] (Score:3, Insightful)
Uh, why Microsoft? I think they've proven they suck with anything "cool", especially in the mobile realm. Android is now starting to steamroll BB in stats, and has a cool tablet coming out. Why would a mobile company trying to 'come back' (of sorts) hire a MS person? I don't get it.
News for PHBs (Score:1, Insightful)
Stuff that matters to stuffed suits in accounts receivable.
Re:Hmm, shoulda hired from Google (Score:3, Insightful)
I bought a e52 because it had a bunch of things that I wanted and hey, symbian is open source now too, right?
Well, in a word, disappointment. Serial disappointment. It's not the surface of the interface, it's not qt or lack thereof, it's complete cluelessness in functionality. Every single feature disappoints in some way, down to the calendar and the timer -- both of which are far inferior to the very same thing in my 2001 vintage 6310. The only thing you might run the "open sourced" symbian on within the foreseeable future is beagle boards. Nothing wrong with beagle boards, but I wouldn't run symbian on them. I want to fix my damned phone, but that part isn't open.
It really is impressive just how much nokia failed to "get". It's like they're dead set on finding irrelevance from within heaps and heaps of potential.
Re:Microsoft? (Score:3, Insightful)
I know Nokia still sells a lot of phones, but they are mostly in lower profit area of the market.
Re:Microsoft? (Score:5, Insightful)
Not really. This guy is taking the role of CEO, not chief engineer. Elop probably has a proven track record in managing Microsoft's business-software division (which does better than most divisions at MS) so they want him to deliver the same success to Nokia.
Also, it's worth noting that Nokia's financial success is not dependent on competing with Apple in the smartphone market. They could simply continue making featurephones and dominate that segment, and make tons of money doing so.
Re:The hired from Microsoft because ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Microsoft? (Score:4, Insightful)
Because you're experienced in hiring executives and know that executive != company. Which google exec [google.com] would you go for? How many executives at a company primarily focused on advertising would really be appropriate to run one of the largest manufacturing companies in the world? I have no idea. Are you just more willing to share your opinion on matters you don't have in depth knowledge of, or is hiring execs your day job?
Re:Windows [mobile]/[phone] (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe Nokia's hoping to move in more of a business direction and eat up Blackberry's market?
Elop comes from Office, which is about as close to a license to print money as you can get in the Office world. Clearly he knows something about managing a product that the business world will want. Cue a handful of people who are convinced that any day now Google Docs or OO will finally make real headway against Office in much the same way that Cubs fans are convinced that this will be their year in the World Series, but seriously -- even if Office somehow went down in flames today, it's still enjoyed utter dominance of its market for, what, 15 years? I'm sure if Nokia ended up with only that kind of dominance over business smartphones out of this move (and I don't think they will, but for the sake of argument... ) they'd be happy with it.
Re:The hired from Microsoft because ... (Score:5, Insightful)
On the other hand MS Office as software is very bloated and inelegant.
On the other other hand, Office enjoys ridiculous market share and makes a staggering amount of money.
I wonder which of those things would be more important to a corporation.
Re:Microsoft? (Score:3, Insightful)
This guy is taking the role of CEO, not chief engineer.
Thank you. Most people seem to have missed the point that he's going to be in charge of the business end, not product development.
Granted, the two are obviously intertwined, but he's going to be dealing with money and people, not the decisions about what software to pursue/cancel except on a big picture scale.
Re:Interesting turn of fate (Score:3, Insightful)
far more, nokia is embracing linux for it's next mass platform (meego) and open-sourcing it's current platforn (symbian).
i hope they will keep this attitude.
for now they are a little slow to deliver, but they are imho the most open mobiles company.
Re:Staggeringly Delusional (Score:3, Insightful)
Depends on the metrics. I'm sure Apple makes oodles more money with the iPhone and related stuff (content, accessories) than Google is making with Android and related stuff.
I'm fairly sure RIM is, too.
Re:Windows [mobile]/[phone] (Score:5, Insightful)
This guy isn't Mr Microsoft. He simply worked for them. Have some damn perspective.
Re:The hired from Microsoft because ... (Score:1, Insightful)
On the other hand MS Office as software is very bloated and inelegant.
You meant OpenOffice.
Re:Microsoft? (Score:4, Insightful)
True, but I'm not sure there is such a thing as a functional chief engineer in the consumer space. If they were designing aircraft, I can see the suits deferring to the engineers except for general requirements, budgets, and such. It'll probably be harder to convince any CEO that he doesn't understand cell phones enough to have an opinion...
Re:Microsoft? (Score:3, Insightful)
And just because he is the CEO and not the chief engineer, he runs the show and has the voice of the Board of Directors and management. And who's to say he's not going to start replacing many of the existing staff with his own? That is what often happens.
IMO, this guys is untested in a real market and given where he came from, he's a threat to the future of Nokia. Had he been outside of Microsoft for a couple of years more could be known of his ability to lead an independent company but that's now what we have here.
LoB
Nothing. (Score:2, Insightful)
These issues have everything to do with the topic. Every possible corner of the topic is covered in these issues. We have Mobile competetive field, Microsoft executive moving to competitor, deals with the devil, partnership potentials, future potentials, breach of faith and so on. We don't have the death of the moved-to company yet because Nokia is not yet in that phase of the engagement.
And yet I'm going to relent. After further consideration Nokia is too smart to be bought off by Microsoft, too big to believe in a benefit, too clever to leave their CEO ungoverned. At 30 months this guy's too new to Redmond to be an external asset unless their mindscaping has risen to Treadstone [wikipedia.org] levels, and I don't believe it has. There's no evidence of a significant Scientology incursion into the Microsoft culture, which is what it would take to turn him so quick. Nokia's Board is learned enough and responsible enough to consider these issues, monitor their new CEO carefully and judge the risks. They're not dumb, and they've not reached their dotage. If he's a plant he's not going to sprout at Nokia.
I recant my objections. He may compete well and that would be a Good Thing.
If Nokia should enter into a "partnership [theregister.co.uk]" with Microsoft in the near future though, Nokia is an easy short. Microsoft is a competitor with trivial market share and limited resources in the space. Microsoft wants to compete in this space with Windows Phone 7. Nokia remains, and is projected to remain, the dominant player in the space. Such a partnership would gain Nokia nothing and benefit Microsoft well so it would be an abrogation of corporate responsibility for Nokia to enter into such a deal. If you see it, Nokia is PWNed. Short Nokia hard in that case and you can retire on the movement.
Re:Bai bai nokia (Score:2, Insightful)
Microsoft's Marc Brown [theregister.co.uk] had nothing to do with phones either, when he took a seat on the board of Sendo.
He was then and remained through the project, an employee of Microsoft.