Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

An interesting changing of the guard at Microsoft

One of Microsoft's most senior executives jumped ship this week. The timing of his departure suggests that he could have been pushed as much as he jumped.

It normally isn't news when IT people move from company to company, but there are times and circumstances when personnel movements do attract attention. Microsoft's announcement that Kevin Johnson is leaving for a position with Juniper Networks is noteworthy.

Where this particular departure becomes interesting is in the role that Johnson held within Microsoft and the activities he was involved in prior to his departure. As the head of platforms and services within Microsoft, Johnson was responsible for some of the biggest assets managed by Microsoft, including the Windows operating system, the MSN Instant Messenger and associated network, and Windows Live email (previously Hotmail). If this wasn't enough, the division was also responsible for Microsoft's online advertising and search endeavours. With the recent high profile focus from Microsoft on these latter two areas as well as significant coverage of Windows Vista and plans for Windows 7 it would seem that Johnson held one of the most important jobs within the company.

In addition to the above responsibilities, Johnson was reportedly one of the key individuals associated with Microsoft's repeated bids for Yahoo, all of which were ultimately unsuccessful. Coupled with search and advertising performance that were falling short of company goals and Johnson's departure suddenly looks very conveniently timed. Correlation doesn't imply causation and with Johnson heading off to take the top job at a major networking hardware company he is certainly continuing to move up the corporate ladder.

Random speculation can be fun but Johnson leaves behind a division that wears the brunt of what many consider to be a mangled Windows Vista, an online services department that has lost almost half a billion dollars in the most recent reporting quarter, an advertising services portfolio that is still significantly behind Google despite the 2007 US$6 billion acquisition of aQuantive, and multiple failed takeover bids for Yahoo. Yahoo's acceptance of Carl Icahn representatives on their board might be seen as a partial victory for Microsoft but it probably came after Johnson had made his decision to leave the company.

Post Johnson's departure, the Platforms and Services division will be reformed as the Windows/Windows Live division and an online services division, with separate heads reporting directly to Steve Ballmer (three for the Windows/Windows Live division and one for online services). This split represents a recognition of the key functional difference between online service offerings and operating system offerings, though the inclusion of Windows Live with the operating system division suggests that Microsoft is still trying to integrate online services tightly into the core operating system.

With so many recent changes within the senior ranks of Microsoft, the question is how long the old guard will remain in place and what sort of direction the company will take once they finally depart from active control of the company. So long as Bill Gates retains some level of control over the company this will probably never happen, but just as Apple performed significantly differently without the hand of Jobs, Microsoft might very well be a completely different company after Gates and Ballmer.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: Apple, Bill, Billion, Google, IT People, Juniper, Juniper Networks, Messenger, Microsoft, MSN, Windows Live, Yahoo
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • The Pathways ICT Leadership Development Program Brochure and Curriculum 2012
    Developed by the CIO executive Council, Pathways is a unique, flexible, self-managed, self-paced 12-month CIO designed and delivered professional development program that brings together best practices, thought leadership and business insights for today’s most promising ICT professionals.
    Learn more »
  • Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Disk-Based Backup/Recovery
    While backup is among the oldest, most performed tasks in the data center, the industry is undergoing significant change as organisations accelerate new technology adoption and show a propensity to implement new solutions, in some cases from vendors that are emerging or new to the backup market.
    Learn more »
  • Three simple steps to better patch security
    It’s estimated that 90% of successful attacks against software vulnerabilities could be prevented with an existing patch or configuration setting. Yet patching is a persistent challenge for IT managers. With the glut of patches released each year, how do you know which ones are truly critical security patches and which ones aren’t? And how can you identify which computers are actually missing the patches they need? This paper details a simple approach to patching that gives you better visibility into and control over patch assessment and compliance.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.