Why Sinofsky Left: A Web Roundup

The announcement of Steven Sinofsky’s ouster from Microsoft came late on Monday, so the story has only begun to be reported. Here is what various news organizations and bloggers are saying:

Ashlee Vance at Bloomberg Businessweek wrote:

The big knock on Sinofsky was his often-prickly nature. He wasn’t seen as a team player within Microsoft and was instead known for protecting his fiefdom. That approach doesn’t go over well at today’s Microsoft, which needs to prove that Windows is just one piece of a larger collective that includes phone software, online services, and entertainment products delivered via the Xbox. Sinofsky also proved reticent to speak with the press and was barely heard from as Windows 8 hit the market late last month.

Mary Jo Foley, one of the wisest Microsoft watchers, wrote at ZDNet:

Windows 8 launched commercially just about three weeks ago; it’s too soon to judge if the latest Windows release and the Microsoft Surface tablet will be deemed successes or failures. And still months before anyone will be sacrificed if internal projections are unmet.

I give more credence to the politics theory.

She referred readers to a recent article on Mr. Sinofsky by Jay Greene of CNet. Then she noted:

Remember that word: collaboration. It can mean anything from being willing to use other teams’ code, to not standing in the way when another division launches its product on a competitive platform.

Sinofsky is known inside and outside the company as a guy who got things done and done his way. Rumors regularly reappeared about Sinofsky angling to take over more business units. And until recently, it seemed like Microsoft’s own senior leadership team, as well as Ballmer himself, had capitulated, allowing Sinofsky to make whatever management decisions he deemed fit. Those who disagreed left or were shown the door (and probably won’t be back, though never say never).

But more recently, something seemingly changed, including the rhetoric.

Kara Swisher, at AllThingsD, concurred, writing:

In the case of the seemingly sudden departure of Windows head Steve Sinofsky yesterday, several high-level sources at the company said that it came down to former C.E.O. and co-founder Bill Gates’s backing of current C.E.O. Steve Ballmer in the controversial decision to part ways with the powerful exec.

The goal? To better allow various units work together more closely going forward.

An industry blog, Tim Anderson’s ITWriting, said:

One line of thought is that Windows 8 and Surface RT are failing because users do not like the dramatic changes, with the new tiled personality and disappeared Start menu, and therefore its architect is departing.

I do not believe this for several reasons. One is that the promoted Julie Larson-Green is a key creator and proponent of the new design (call it Metro if you like). She worked with Sinofsky on the Office Ribbon way back, a project that has some parallels with Windows 8: take a critically important product and revamp its user interface in ways that customers are not requesting or expecting.

Brier Dudley at the Seattle Times went to town listing eight reasons for Mr. Sinofsky’s ouster. Here are the first three:

1. Sinofsky was passed over for the opportunity to succeed Ballmer as chief executive. Perhaps Kevin Turner or someone else internally was given the nod, despite Sinofsky’s huge achievements building the company’s flagship Office and Windows products.

2. Ballmer was going to divvy up Sinofsky’s kingdom in a way that didn’t go over well. Perhaps it was time to split Windows Live services from big Windows and give Chris Jones, VP of Live services, more responsibility?

3. Could Microsoft be hiring Scott Forstall, the ousted head of mobile software development at Apple? Forstall is a local guy who interned at Microsoft and has family in this area. If he was hired by Microsoft, he’d take a top spot and carve out some of Sinofsky’s turf.

And then there was Twitter silliness. Charles Cooper of CNet captured a lot of it – ties to the Petraeus affair and Scott Forstall’s recent departure from Apple.