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Did Ballmer Clash Lead to Windows Chief Sinofsky's Exit? By Jennifer LeClaire November 13, 2012 10:47AM     Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, left, is trying to "get the entire company working together in an effort to build a homogenous solution that crosses all areas: services on the back end, hardware on the front end, and Microsoft at both ends and in between," said analyst Rob Enderle. "That means all the heads have to cooperate and work together."   Related Topics Windows Microsoft Steve Ballmer Steve Sinofsky Bill Gates Julie Larson-Green Tami Reller Latest News Yahoo, Apple Disclose Data Requests Free Video Messaging Comes to Skype Prism's Secret: Bigger Data Seizure Netflix Gets New Dreamworks Series Judge in Microsoft Antitrust Case Dies First Apple shook up its leadership, including firing its iOS chief. Now Microsoft is following suit with its own executive sweep. Microsoft just announced Steve Sinofsky, president of both Windows and Windows Live, is immediately leaving the company. Neither Microsoft nor Sinofsky offered any official reason for his departure. "It is impossible to count the blessings I have received over my years at Microsoft," Sinofsky said. "I am humbled by the professionalism and generosity of everyone I have had the good fortune to work with at this awesome company." Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said he's grateful for the many years of work that Sinofsky has contributed to the company. He noted that the products and services Microsoft has delivered to the market in the past few months mark the launch of a new era at the company. "We've built an incredible foundation with new releases of Microsoft Office, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Microsoft Surface, Windows Server 2012 and 'Halo 4,' and great integration of services such as Bing, Skype and Xbox across all our products," Ballmer said. "To continue this success it is imperative that we continue to drive alignment across all Microsoft teams, and have more integrated and rapid development cycles for our offerings." Sinofsky's Empire Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, said it was likely Sinofsky was terminated for going around Ballmer to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. Enderle called Sinofsky an empire builder who is known for not cooperating well with others. "Ballmer is trying to connect all the dots and get the entire company working together in an effort to build a homogenous solution that crosses all areas: services on the back end, hardware on the front end, and Microsoft at both ends and in between," Enderle said. "That means all the heads have to cooperate and work together, and Sinofsky's not that guy. He probably felt threatened, went to Gates and got shot just like [former head of Microsoft's Servers and Tools] Bob Muglia did." Microsoft is promoting Julie Larson-Green to lead all Windows software and hardware engineering. Tami Reller retains her roles as CFO and CMO and will assume responsibility for the business of Windows. Both executives will report directly to Ballmer. Fresh Blood Larson-Green has worked on and led some of the most successful products for Microsoft since 1993. She had a hand in the user experiences for early versions of Internet Explorer, and helped drive the thinking behind the refresh of the user experience for Microsoft Office. (continued...) 1  |  2  |  Next Page >   Tell Us What You Think Comment: Name: Also Visit: iPad Info Center Billions of Bytes Mobile Device Now Apple Info Center TopTechWire.com Brocade delivers a comprehensive cloud-optimized networking portfolio of products and open-architecture solutions to simplify and accelerate the deployment of cloud computing and provide maximum deployment flexibility with plug-in scalability. Click here to learn more.  Business Briefing 1.   Judge in Microsoft Antitrust Case Dies 2.   Mobile Payments Slow To Catch On 3.   Do Automakers Fear Apple Car Plans? 4.   Self Driving Cars: Go Slow or Fast? 5.   Apple Executive Denies Price-Fixing Lawyers Populate Apple's Dark Side Most artful vision may be on legal side. Average Rating: Judge in Microsoft Antitrust Case Dies Presided over historic lawsuit, ruling. Average Rating: Mobile Payments Slow To Catch On With lack of consensus on standards. Average Rating:

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Enterprise Hardware Spotlight

Samsung Offers Tiny, Superfast PCIe SSDs for Ultrabooks Solid-state drives are continuing their march forward. On Monday, Samsung Electronics announced it has started to mass produce the first PCI-Express 3.0 SSDs for the new wave of Ultrabooks.   Amazon.com Joins 3D Printer Craze, Enabling Wide Availability Commercially available 3D printers have recently moved from being expensive hobbyist devices to being pricey but accessible consumer and manufacturing machines. And now, Amazon.com will sell 3D printers & supplies online.   New Facebook Data Center Uses All Home-Grown Servers Facebook has opened its new data center in Lulea, Sweden. The data center is a first in two ways: the first in Europe and the first to be equipped with all Facebook-designed, Open Compute servers.

Mobile Enterprise Spotlight

Why Google's Project Loon is Smart Business Google is once again proving that it's much more than a search engine or even a mobile-device company, with Project Loon. The initiative aims to bring "balloon-powered Internet" to isolated areas of the world.   Authorities Want Smartphone 'Kill Switch' To Fight Thefts Law enforcement authorities are calling on the smartphone industry to adopt "kill switch" technologies that would deter theft by squeezing the market for selling stolen devices, which would be worthless if "bricked."   Small Business Gets Boost from Mobile Marketing Aside from the requisite e-commerce tricks, small businesses are turning their attention to the mobile arena to engage social media-savvy customers, as mobile marketing tools offer more channels.

Enterprise Technology Spotlight

New Facebook Data Center Uses All Home-Grown Servers Facebook has opened its new data center in Lulea, Sweden. The data center is a first in two ways: the first in Europe and the first to be equipped with all Facebook-designed, Open Compute servers.   Cisco Telecom Router Ready for Internet Traffic Flood The Carrier Routing System-X unveiled by Cisco for the telecommunications industry is a 400 Gbps per slot system that can be expanded to nearly 1 petabit per second, enough to deal with the coming flood in demand.   HP's IT in a Box Targets SMBs by Using Google Apps Hewlett-Packard is partnering with Google on HP SMB IT in a Box, which it bills as a "one-stop shop" solution for small and medium business customers. The move is likely to ruffle Microsoft's feathers.

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