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]

@Baron95

You are reading the announcement all wrong!

Why?

Because Microsoft will kill Windows 10 Mobile and Microsoft's mobile phones and there is no need to have a separate business entity for these! Microsoft 10 Mobile and Microsoft' mobile phones will just dissappear in thin air and in 2 years from majority of people will not even remember Microsoft's adventure into phone business.

From now we will see more and more Android apps from Microsoft and probably even an "Microsoft Android Play Store". Microsoft's goal will be now to push Google out of Android and actually Microsoft is in quite good position for doing this, like for example: (i) already the biggest Android phone makers are paying patent royalties to Microsoft for using Android, (ii) large markets like China where Google search engine and Google Play Store are not allowed to be, and (iii) Android phone manufactures want Android but do not like to have Google services on their phones because it does not bring any money to them, and so on.

[Catriona]

@Paul, it's a little hard to push Google out of Android when Google is the only developer making new versions. Sure, AOSP is available, but it always lags Google Play Android. Unless you want competing, incompatible versions of Android developing (in which case one of them is no longer "Android") Google will have the advantage.

[Paul]

@Catriona

I agree that it will be very difficult and most likely Microsoft will not win (at least this is what I hope for) but still Microsoft will try.

As Tomi stated now we are in "farming phase" in mobiles and therefore is really no need for big improvements in Android from point of view of people from the street. Of course Google will pump out from time to time some big improvements/features in Android but people from the street will pay less and less attention to them. Therefore many people will not notice (like in China?) that they have some slightly incompatible Android version with only and only Microsoft/Samsung/Baidu/etc. "Robot" Play Store. Also how much Android can be improved from point of view of people from the street? I say not much and most likely we will see more Android releases which make sense from marketing point of view but which do not bring any great/revolutionary technological improvements. We are in farming phase.

I do not see how Google will be able to push still its services with Android in 5 years from now. There are way too many entities which are pissed off on Google because they from making money for Google (thru Google services) and they get no cut whatsoever.

[abdul muis]

@Tomi

I don't like elop, as much as you do.
But I think Elop won't feel hurt being kicked out
He already have lots of $$$ in his pocket from nokia/microsoft.
He's laughing all the way to the bank.

[Paul]

@Abdul

Believe me that he feels hurt! That guy is delusional and the way how he behaved it is obviously that he thinks that he is god (or god's adviser) regarding mobile phones. All the power which he had as CEO at Nokia and very big boss at Microsoft got to his head. He is going angry all the way to the bank!
No company will ever hire Elop in such a leading position as he had until now (unless he owns that company)! Ever! His name will appear in many future marketing/management books as an example of how-not-to-do things!

[abdul muis]

@Paul

I think Elop know that Nokia was the last ACT of he being a matchstick man / conman artist.
It's his masterpiece, and he know after the masterpiece, he were exposed and done.

[Earendil Star]

Slow end to a sad story. It really took too long. THTRH Elop the Flop is now ready to go and destroy a new victim. In any case, this ending is vindicating all the rants that had been posted by the sensible people who wrote comments on this blog against the Softie-Flop diehards.
Sad for Nokia. And a sacrifice that yielded Microsoft very little, as it was mismanaged, the latter being most likely the real reason for the firing.

[Jagdish]

AND The Winner is ELOP!! with $25M in the bank in cash....he wouldnt mind being kicked around!
I agree that ELOP is inefficient to lead companies and the FINN's got carried away with his american accent. BUT ELOP is extremely efficient in making money and cutting deals to benefit himself. That you have to hand it to him.
I just HOPE Nadella now has the guts to close down the handset business sooner than later. The longer he has to keep it alive under compulsion, the bigger the hole in the balance sheet.

[Paul]

@abdul

>I think Elop know that Nokia was the last ACT of he
> being a matchstick man / conman artist.
>It's his masterpiece, and he know after the
> masterpiece, he were exposed and done.

Elop does not see himself as a conman. Elop didn't become CEO of Nokia by doing cheats or tricks. Nokia chose Elop and not the other way around. The Nokia people (and Jorma O.), who put Elop as CEO, obviously had some wet dreams to make Nokia a Windows Company (if one remembers just before this Nokia was even making laptops and had 'special' relations with Microsoft). Why else Nokia people would choose a Microsoft boss as their CEO against the advice of all experts (whose opinion was asked)?

Elop had a very clear goal (which was making big the Microsoft Windows Mobile OS) and he did his best in order to achieve this and nothing else mattered (not even Nokia). Elop is like the spoiled teenager who takes his father's car (that is Nokia) and goes with it to a rally car race. Of course that his father's car was not built for rally races but he does not care about this because he just needs a car. All he cares is to win a rally car race. So, he goes to rally race and does it best to win and of course that he does not win and trashes the car of his father. Shortly, Elop has never cared about Nokia and he always took the decisions which were best for Microsoft.

[RottenApple]

Baron, Baron, Baron...
Sigh...

Are you really serious to believe a corporate announcement at face value, especially if it concerns a failing unit?

No, this isn't about synergies, this is (to any smart person at least) a well executed move to get rid of some costly baggage that is bogging the company down.

Yes, what you say here is precisely how this is supposed to be presented to the outside. It's really the best opportunity to shut this godforsaken division down without making it look like a failure. Nadella is a genius, having waited for this opportunity to finally clean house and still presenting it as a positive move.

No, I do not expect the mobile operating system to disappear, but I do expect the phone manufacturing to be gradually reduced to zero, this will be done in a manner that won't openly register. As I said, true genius to hide the phone manufacturing in another division so that anything that happens now will merely be registered as noise by the clueless financial markets. He can finally get rid of this failed business without making it look like 'we failed at mobile'.

In retrospect I have to say Kudos to Nokia for grabbing the chance of dumping the entire Lumia mess on Microsoft while still making some good money out of it. Now Microsoft not only has to pay the selling price to Nokia but also the entire costs to close that unit.

[abdul muis]

@Paul

I think Elop consider himself as a great person to chop a company into pieces and sell it.
turn around expert that save the investor money by liquidating it.
Just like what he did with Adobe and sell it to Juniper Network.
The different is, this time he chop a whale, and got exposed too much.

YES, JO and other nokia board choose elop, that was his speciality.
Looks innocent to trick others.

[Spawn]

@Eduardo M

> Nadella is such a bright and clear-headed fellow that he probably already sees WP is hopeless,

http://m.windowsitpro.com/mobile/satya-nadella-explains-mobile-mobile-first-cloud-first

"He said that Windows Phone's market share doesn't matter.

He said that Microsoft's broader goal is to deliver productivity experiences across all of the devices that people use.

This confirms my previous notion that Microsoft's biggest contributions in this "mobile first, cloud first" era are mobile apps—irrespective of the hardware—and cloud services. And not its own hardware."

@Baron95

> between all the devices.

Exactly. All devices means including >97% Android and iOS whereas this Why else Nokia people would choose a Microsoft boss as their CEO against the advice of all experts

Because of pressure from certain investors. Money overruled experts, company dead.

[NO ONE WANTS WINDOWS]

Hey baron95 ...our resident microsoft astroturfer! ...how are your windows phone predictions doing over the these years and years and years... Is microsoft STILL "waiting for Moore's law"???? ....too funny LoL!

All you astroturfers now shake your head NO and repeat after me.

NO ONE WANTS WINDOWS ON A PHONE!!!!! ... :-)

[Crun Kykd]

Actually, @baron has it right. Windows 10 is a consolidated code base that MSFT will use on all its hardware targets: PC's, phones, Xbox, surface, hololens, etc. Their vision is that developers can write to one target and run on all of them. They are advertising their Visual Studio development tools with precisely that pitch to software developers. It's actually a persuasive vision. Makes total sense that Nardello consolidates those divisions inside the company. Elop as odd man out is a somewhat convenient side effect, not the reorgs goal.

[NO ONE WANTS WINDOWS]

The link, below, is more news of Microsoft next failure. It is a well-reasoned article.

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/microsoft-announces-its-next-upcoming-failure-cortana-for-android-and-ios/

Clearly, microsoft still is stuck in the 80's because they think they rule the world of tech and everyone is clamoring to use their usually inferior products.

All you astroturfers still waiting for moore's law with baron95, hop up and down and repeat after me.

NO ONE WANTS WINDOWS ON A PHONE!!!!! ... :-)

[Tomi T Ahonen]

To all..

Related news: Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri has just confirmed to a German magazine that yes Nokia brand will return to smartphones in 2016. I have blogged about it just a moment ago, lets do the Nokia discussions there, not here. Lets leave the Microsoft-dead-in-phones parts here.

(wow what a great week, Elop fired, Trump brings his circus to the election cycle and Nokia confirms they will be back in 2016. Christmas and birthday and another Christmas all happened on the same day for me. Will Kimi now win in Austria?)

Tomi Ahonen :-)

[RottenApple]

@Crun Kykd:

Their vision is hogwash.
It all depends on so many pieces falling into the right place that it takes a miracle to work.
I agree that this would be the dream outcome they'd like to see but betting all horses on such a far reaching play is kind of risky.

The entire concept of universal apps suffers from one major design flaw: The sandbox system is so utterly restricted that it's unusable for heavy-duty applications that are common on the desktop. This means that desktop apps will remain on Win32, and therefore inaccessible to the feature restricted Windows SKUs. And since those feature restricted SKUs are currently only on devices with negligible market share, there will be very, very little interest to target them - so there's no pressing need for making universal apps.

The only hard fact here is that the Lumia division has been losing money since its inception and will be losing money for years to come. You can read between the lines of Nadella's statements that his love for Windows Phone is not that large. All this combined shows a pretty clear picture.

So let's repeat the universal truth of Windows Phone:

The next version will not solve all its problems.

7.5 didn't do it for 7.0.
8.0 didn't do it for 7.x.
8.1 didn't do it for 8.0.
And 10 won't do it for 8.

I already said this multiple times: People hate this interface so much that every product depending on it is doomed from the start.
That means that sales may see a slight spike due to some people being curious - caused by the stupid reporting in the press - but once they see it's the same shitty tile interface AGAIN with no significant changes, it'll all go on just as before - until someone finally pulls the plug.

[NO ONE WANTS WINDOWS]

Only an astroturfer would post such windows 10 optomistic nonsense... It is already DOA except on the deluded mind of the astroturfer

...unless Moore's law rescues it too funny, ...LoL!

A flash to all astroturfers: now pound your chest and shout

NO ONE WANTS WINDOWS ON A PHONE!!!!! ... :-)

[Crun Kykd]

@NO ONE WANTS WINDOWS on a phone: How about on a hololens? or an Xbox? or a Surface? or a tablet? or an Oculus PC? Or a laptop? or a web blade server? Phones are just one device - an important one - but not the only one for the perpetual future.

RottenApple: Windows 10 will be a converged OS whether you like that idea or not. And complaining about it being bad for heavy-duty apps, there are no intensive apps anymore. It's all easy web browsing. And any really high speed stuff is computer graphics that you do by buying an Nvidia card, a hogged out PC, and running - you guessed it - Windows 10.

[RottenApple]

Windows 10 will remain strictly where Windows is right now: on the desktop.

We are long past the point where the general public will adopt a Microsoft operating system on any new product category, it will all end up the same way as it ended up with phones: as a footnote.

Windows is a no-show on phones, it will be a no-show on any future product category because the competition is so stiff that they won't be able to captialize on it. Apple will be there if it happens and so will Google. And now take one good guess what current iPhone and Android users will buy then. Right: A system that integrates well with their phone of choice.

"Windows 10 will be a converged OS whether you like that idea or not. And complaining about it being bad for heavy-duty apps, there are no intensive apps anymore."

Wow, that's news to me. By 'heavy duty' I do not mean something that requires massive calculating power but something that can actually ACCESS the resources on a PC. But a 'modern' app can neither access files at will nor launch other processes. It's completely locked out from the system and that will make it DOA for any kind of serious task.

"It's all easy web browsing. And any really high speed stuff is computer graphics that you do by buying an Nvidia card, a hogged out PC, and running - you guessed it - Windows 10."

Yes, sure. All those custom enterprise apps, software development tools and whatever else professional users require will magically disappear. And surely everybody will migrate to the cloud, putting everything at risk due to thieves running rampant in the internet.
What a load of nonsense.

Quite the opposite will happen.
Those people who do not have a need for such 'heavy duty' software will stop using a desktop PC and completely migrate to mobile devices (and Windows with it) - leaving those behind who value the flexibility a full-fledged computer provides. And those will have NO USE WHATSOEVER for all this crippled bullcrap that is considered 'computing' these days.

And all this combined means: The only reason for the existence of 'modern'/universal apps is devices that won't run under Windows anyway - those which still do are mostly being used by people who have no real use for smartphone apps, therefore the need for these apps simply will not exist.