The Takeaway: Elop out as Nadella shakes up Microsoft's executive team
CEO Satya Nadella in a statement released today -- and in comments echoed in an email he sent to Microsoft employees -- said the changes are designed to "better align our capabilities and, ultimately, deliver better products and services our customers love at a more rapid pace."
Elop had run the company's Devices team following his return to Microsoft after it bought Nokia for $7.9 billion. That deal that was finalized just last year. Elop's former group will now come under Myerson's direction. (Myseron will continue to run the company's Operating System group.)
Here's how some of the changes unveiled today shake out:
The new WDG operation marks a return to how Microsoft organized engineering efforts after the launch of its Surface and Surface Pro tablets three years ago. But its sheer size could be a problem, said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. "That's a massive group," he said. "I think it might almost be too big to manage."
Rob Helm, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, said the changes will bolster the company's hardware push: "I think this underlines the fact that Microsoft's hardware business is going to be the first and best customer of Windows."
With reports by Gregg Keizer at Computerworld