Elop Fired From Job at Head of Microsoft Handsets (Old Nokia Lumia Unit) - New Windows & Devices Boss is Terry Myerson

So the Elop nonsense and destructive managment methods lasted only 15 months under Satya Nadella's watchful eye at Microsoft. He is effectively fired from Microsoft. The company realigns handsets into one division under Windows headed by Exec VP Terry Myerson. And Elop plus two other senior execs are kicked out with the press release out today.

Good riddance. Stephen Elop was the worst CEO in corporate history. He clearly was at fault on the top, when he went to Microsott, that same ex-Nokia handset unit with Lumia running on Windows Phone never did any better. Today we've seen new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella examine Elop's performance of the flagship future division - you remember Nadella's introductory remarks to his employees were all about mobile and the cloud - now Elop is gone. And look at the text of the press release. Not one word about 'mobile' or 'handsets' or 'Lumia' in the actual announcements (only one mention on the bottom from the description of Microsoft the company being a 'mobiile-first' company). What a huge shift away from the failing Lumia unit to 'Windows and Devices' ie Surface will do fine, Xbox is doing fine. Lumia is dead.

Now someone will be running the Lumia unit under Exec VP Myerson for a while, and then when they see it is irretrievably dead, they will quietly shut down that business. This is a VERY clear sign of the writing on the wall. And sadly for any ex-Nokia employees, expect more layoffs to come in the aftermath of this announcement and the 'consolidation' within that new business unit. I think the ex-Nokia handset unit has no more than 24 months ahead of this point, and may be shut down far faster than that. Clearly Nadella knows how to read mathematics and the math about Elop's business was brutal. Elop is gone! A day of somber celebrtaions in Finland and all who were fired by that clown will think - at least he also got fired.

I will include a few links. If you just want to see one last time the performance of Stephen Elop and his 3 years as Nokia CEO, when we had clear metrics on the level of the destruction (Microsoft has not broken out the handset business performance this deeply except that the losses continued the past 15 months), you may want to read this one comprehensive summary of Elop tenure as Nokia CEO (with pictures).

I was not always against Elop. Before he joined Nokia, I was on this blog very criticial of his predecessor as CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. I then welcomed Elop on this blog very eagerly in 2010 when he was announced. 

I was fully supportive of his first 5 months as CEO as Nokia's performance improved and Nokia reported record profits in its smartphone division by Q4 of 2010, when Nokia towered over its rivals (Nokia had grown more in the year of 2010 than Apple or Blackberry or Samsung, yes that is true! Nokia was 'winning' very clearly the global war of smartphones in literally every continent except North America where only a tiny fraction of the world's market was even back then). I explained where Nokia's problems were (in marketing, not strategy) and was on this blog a week before Elop's mad Windows gamble was announced, explaining why Nokia's then-current strategy on Symbian, MeeGo, Ovi and Qt was the right way for Nokia and its vast developer community, the carrier community and Nokia's handset-making partners both existing on Symbian and announced on MeeGo. If you want to read kind of 'what could have been' here I am warning BEFORE the Windows strategy is announced, that it would be the dumbest move Nokia could make (and that even Android would be better).

Then there was the big Windows Announcement. I wrote in shock yet if you read the second half part of the blog, all of my forecasts turned out true. This is only minutes after the announcement and yes I said it will end in Nokia smartphone business being sold, most likely to Microsoft itself.

It could have worked out. I then waited to see how the new Lumia handsets would be (as well as the promised better Windows Phone 7 OS platform). And once we saw what it looked like and how badly Elop was messing up everything in the most important launch in Nokia's history, while others were promising that Lumia would win, before the first actual numbers were out, I gave my prognosis of why Lumia will fail. All of this turned out true.

Then we had a couple of years of a comedy of errors by Elop. I reported reguarly on his nonsense. But then I wrote the definitive blog about Elop mismanagement, some of you will remember Sun Tzu applied to Elop management. 30,000 words of only his biggest strategy blunders in 2 years. This is the definitive treatise of what all he destroyed at Nokia. Its perhaps the masterpiece blog article on this blog.

And lastly, was this a 'Nokia' problem or an 'Elop' problem. Would things get better once Microsoft took ownership of the troubled handset division. I wrote the clear preview of what to expect once Elop was back at Microsoft running this unit. And i said h'd be fired.

Its fair to say I saw it call coming and those of you who have been here with me, have read those same words as I wrote them, whether you believed me at the time or not. At least I hope I was able to prepare you for the shocking news as it eventually emerged. It has been a sad sad episode in tech history, how one incompetent CEO destroyed his company (to collect a personal bonus for doing so). As I said, my thoughts are with all those professional competent successful Nokia employees who were NEEDLESSLY fired because of this moron. Good roddance. The word Elop has now a meaning 'ultimate incompetence in management'

Comments

[Paul]

Finally! I have been waiting this already for too long!
I would say that ex-Nokia handset unit has no more than 12 months! 24 months is way too long for mobile market!

[timple]

No doubt he will be leaving with a very generous pay off to match the one he got when he sold Nokia to MS! Its heads I win tails you lose once you get to his exalted level!

[Confused Star]

Fricking Finally(tm). All this VP-level nonsense of not really firing but "forcing to resign" is deeply unsatisfying though. Security should have just showed up without warning, unplugged his computer and said "Give us your badge and your keycard, you're fired." And then perp-walk him out the main entrance with crowds watching and cheering on both sides.

Yeah, I can fantasize...

I wonder if his "resignation" email starts with "Hello there." Hope someone leaks it :P

[cornelius]

Elop certainly had the skills to kill Lumia. I was hoping he gets the chance to finish what he started.
Also Microsoft hinted at a massive write-down on the Nokia unit, now still valued at $5.46B

[John A]

Very interesting. We will see what direction Windows 10 Mobile will go. Will Microsoft continue or shut it down?
I guess the OS will live on small tablets (around 8" inch)in any event.

[napier]

Most incompetent CEO ever. About 4 years too late for Nokia sadly...
Good riddance

[Francisco]

So Mr Elop, how cold is the water out there? The water I mean you threw thousands of Nokians in while destroying the platform. Was it really burning so bad??? Not sure, but what I know is that you did not even touch the water surface, being well paid for something which CEOs are normally fired for. Good luck to all ex Nokia people in MSFT, not sure how long you will last. Good luck to the old (new?) Nokia, hopefully they will take back the name into the market. I have big respect for the Finnish "sisu" and hope to see them back soon. Bye bye Lumia, bye bye Windows Mobile OS.

[TJ]

Actually, I think Kaz Hirai would be candidate for worst CEO. One could argue that Xperia Z3 is the best smartphone (USA Today said it "may be" THE best last Dec). But no one can deny that it has the worst sales. Terrible marketing--actually, nonexistent marketing. Worse thing is, Sony keeps dropping major hints that it might shutter its mobile. Now why would anyone buy a phone from a company that doesn't believe in its own stuff? So, no surprise that it renamed the Z4 the Z3+, when with so many improvements, the name Z4 would be more appropriate (and more tasty from a marketing standpoint).

[Blanco Papa]

Satya has brought you a delightful present for Juhannus, it seems!

I have not agreed with everything you've written over the years here on Elop (far from, in fact) but this, I agree with every word. I will note, that I am also happy to see other certain departures, notably Jo Harlow, whose failure to produce at the flagship level last holiday probably put the final nail in the Lumia/Elop coffin.

The boat is flooding and the rats are all swimming towards shore. Good riddance!

[Spawn]

The clown, the "call me the General Failure", gone! Now thats a huge lose for whoever he joins next.

Or as Satya wrote in his letter letter ( http://news.microsoft.com/2015/06/17/satya-nadella-email-to-employees-on-aligning-engineering-to-strategy/ ):

"Stephen and I have agreed that now is the right time for him to retire from Microsoft.
[...]
[I] look forward to seeing where his next destination will be."

:-)

[PeterH]

"What company will Stephen Elop steal for Microsoft next?
Trojan Horse, King of Thieves"
http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/17/8796465/grand-theft-elop

[NokiaFun]

The fun continues. Nokia makes an agreement to pay Elop $25 million if he turns out to be so bad that they fire him. And then they don't fire him after he announces to the whole world that Nokia products are terrible, but in a year new and better ones will arrive. They don't fire him when he abandons both the existing and future state platforms and bets the company on an unproven OS from a proven nasty company. No...they let Elop run them into the ground, then sell themselves to Msft and give Elop $25 million for the privilege. Those hilarious Finn's.

You think Msft was stupid enough to bring Elop back on board with a golden parachute clause? No. They just accepted him back while they tried to salvage what they could of they mobile future, and fired him at their convenience. Without letting him do any damage or make any decisions. Why do you think there has been no marquee/hero Windows Phone for more than a year? It's all about Windows 10 and the future state....and selling WP cheap in the mean time while other pieces of the puzzle are put in place.

BTW, Lumia was not mentioned, but neither was Surface or Xbox or any other hardware device bound "the devices group". Reading anything about future hardware plans into this statement just isn't warranted. Msft is doing what Samsung is doing....which is what Apple is doing. Trying to own the entire experience from hardware to OS to services. Putting Windows and Devices group together under one executive is a means to that end.

Who knows what that future will be. But today we can rejoice that the guy the Finn's couldn't see reason to fire despite him trashing their company....was finally fired. Just don't mention to them that it's was done without paying $25million for the privilege.

[Spawn]

@Confused Star

> I wonder if his "resignation" email starts with "Hello there."

Hello there,

I woke up one day from a loud explosion, which suddenly set my entire Executive@Microsoft-platform on fire. As reality approached me, I had mere seconds to react. Satya (and I) decided I had to jump. It was unexpected.
In ordinary circumstances, I would never consider plunging into icy waters. But these were not ordinary times – my platform was on fire and my CEO (and I) decided I had to jump.

I may survive the fall and the waters. I may rescued by some strange company offering me a new job. This causes a radical change in my behaviour since I am not Executive@Microsoft any longer.

Lumia, the platform is burning, I am on fire, I got fired.

I am working on a path forward — a path to rebuild my leadership. When I share the new strategy soon, it will be a huge effort to transform into the new role. But, I believe that I can face the challenges ahead of me. I can choose to define my new future. Together, the huge inventory of Lumia-devices and myself, we can choose to define our new future now.

The burning platform, upon which I found himself, caused me to shift my behaviour, and take a bold and brave step into an uncertain employment future as was decided by my CEO (and me). I am still able to tell my story!

Stephen.

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Spawn that is priceless! I just Tweeted the notice to my followers to come read your letter. Brilliant!

Tomi Ahonen :-)

[Eduardo M]

Why does it seem almost certain that Microsoft will shut down Lumia and Windows Phone pretty soon?

To start Microsoft is a corporation, and corporations are in business to make money. However, different corporations use different strategies to do that. For Microsoft, the main strategy has been to sell licenses to its operating system and also to the software it makes and that runs only on Windows. More recently web services have been added in.

The idea with Microsoft Phone was to follow that traditional strategy. Users would buy hundreds of million of smart phones with the os and the software loaded, and sign up for the services, and Microsoft would enjoy huge profits.

However, the plan was a failure. Android came along and gave away its os, software and services, so Microsoft was forced to slash its licence fees. And sales were so low that Microsoft was getting very little income. It got so bad that Microsoft is now porting its software over to Android (if you have faith that a product could succeed, you don't voluntarily give away one of its main competitive advantages).

The result is Microsoft has no way to make any money from Windows Phone, and no realistic prospects it ever will. Ballmer, couldn't admit this as it was his baby. However Nadella is not emotionally committed to it, and so we can expect he will give it the axe pretty soon.

[RWD]

Tomi, I have been reading your blog for a few years now, and I enjoy it immensely. I do it in part out of schadenfreude (I love how you beat the crap out of Microsoft in general, and Elop, in particular) but also because it is the best source of information about what is going on in the mobile world and, more importantly, what is likely to happen in the near future, for your forecasts tend to be spot on. Kudos to you.

Now would it be too much to ask you please NOT to remind us, not once, but several times, in each article, how good your forecasts are? It gets annoying after a while, it negatively contributes to the length of your articles, without adding any useful information, and, quite frankly, it makes one think that perhaps you are not so sure about your forecasts yourself. Please do away with that weakness, but carry on writing up excellent articles.

[Tester]

@Eduardo M:

"The result is Microsoft has no way to make any money from Windows Phone, and no realistic prospects it ever will. Ballmer, couldn't admit this as it was his baby. However Nadella is not emotionally committed to it, and so we can expect he will give it the axe pretty soon. "

Sure he will. But of course it all has to be done while saving face. Outright admitting that WP tanked is an impossibility.
The current merging of divisions is an obvious first step. Nothing gets cancelled, the action is hidden in some 'restructuring'.
Now that there is no more mobile division to be closed it will be a lot easier to gradually phase the deficient phone business out because it doesn't have to be done under the scrutiny of the public eye.

[Eduardo M]

@Tester:

I think you're probably right. Nadella is such a bright and clear-headed fellow that he probably already sees WP is hopeless, and he just following what he sees is the best path for getting rid of it.

[Winter]

@Boron95
To teh moon!

[Catriona]

@Baron95, I do think it's a clear sign that Microsoft is de-emphasizing being in the phone business itself. They'll continue making Windows 10 Mobile, but might gradually discontinue or sell off the Lumia phone business.