Steve Ballmer and Marissa Mayer Face the Same Problems at Microsoft and Yahoo
I know this will come as a shock to many Microsofties who will hate seeing their company compared to Yahoo, but I firmly believe that Steve Ballmer and Marissa Mayer face exactly the same problems at their respective companies. The only differences are matters of scale and position on the lifecycle to extinction. Both are [...]
Microsoft Bamboozled by Yammer in $1.2 Billion Purchase
Well, after that title — what else is there to say? Lots, hear me out – I’d like to tell you why I am going against all the optimists out there (although I do consider myself an optimist) and why I liken this deal to AOL acquiring Time Warner (and we all know how well [...]
Microsoft: A new era of vertical integration?
As he introduced the Microsoft Surface tablet yesterday, Steve Ballmer kicked off by pointing out Microsoft has long been a hardware player. He is right of course. Lots of accessories – mice, webcams. Lots of devices which did not overlap much with its licensees – Zune, XBox, Kinect, Surface table. With Surface Tablet we may [...]
Why Microsoft Needs a Fighter Pilot Instead of a Moist N’ Easy Snack Cake Salesman
Wondering where that crazy title and the photo came from? First, check out Steve Ballmer’s early pre-Microsoft career. He was the Product Manager for Proctor & Gamble’s Moist N’ Easy Snack Cakes. No harm in that, in fact he apparently sat near Jeffrey Immelt, who would eventually rise to become one of GE’s celebrated CEO’s. [...]
Enterprise Headlines and Excerpts, 1-15 April 2011
Tax day. Meh. Some highlights of the first half of April: Marin County tries using racketeering charges against Deloitte and SAP. Do Marin County residents realize their paid employees are wasting their money this way? And after wasting so much money with an ill-advised ERP project?!? Larry Page takes over CEO role at Google, shakes [...]
Microsoft Convergence Notes
ATLANTA—This might be remembered as the Convergence where Microsoft finally began to converge. More specifically, it is the convergence where accounting and CRM met in the cloud. The big news coming from Convergence is the announcement that Microsoft AX, one of the company’s three ERP systems is moving to the cloud. You could look at [...]
Will cloudies take over at Microsoft?
As the debate continues over who will make up the next leadership generation at Microsoft, I was intrigued to read the two names first on Mary Jo Foley’s list yesterday of potential successors to Bob Muglia, the departing head of Servers and Tools: “There are a number of in-house candidates that might be the kind [...]
Bob Muglia Leaves — is this the Beginning of a Major Enterprise Realignment at Microsoft?
Image by Microsoft PDC via Flickr There’s lots of speculation floating around about why Bob Muglia, head of Microsoft’s Server and Tools Business, is leaving this summer. I agree with my colleague Mary Jo Foley that is wasn’t because Muglia wasn’t all-in on software&services, he seemed to actually get it. But I do think there [...]
Bob Muglia Leaving Microsoft – Quick Analysis
(Above: Wordle tag cloud of Steve Ballmer’s letter on BobMu leaving.) Microsoft’s Bob Muglia is leaving Microsoft later this year, and he seems like the decision wasn’t entirely his, as CEO Steve Ballmer put it: “I have decided that now is the time to put new leadership in place for STB.” It’s always rash to [...]
From Microsoft Monolith to Monopoly to Monocellular – as in Brand
Just two weeks ago when Microsoft’s brand had at least some value, the company launched its renewed efforts into mobile computing, namely Windows Mobile 7. No – wait, I think it’s just Windows Phone 7. Microsoft dropped "Mobile" in more ways than one, though I’m sure the irony is lost…
