Goodbye, Mr. Sinofsky, and thank you for teaching me two of the most valuable lessons in office politics during my tenure at The Empire:
To be fair, Sinofsky is that combination of “smart” and “gets things done”. In his heartfelt “farewell” article, Dare Obasanjo writes that he took some products in need of fixing up and love — Windows Vista, Surface-the-big-ass-table, “a mish mash of confusing consumer synchronization products” — and turned them around into dramatically improved versions: Windows 7 and 8, Surface-the-tablet and SkyDrive.
Other takes:
- In the Sinofsky Departure, Bill Gates Sided With the Other Steve (Ballmer) at Microsoft – Kara Swisher at AllThingsD
- Sources inside Microsoft say a clash of personalities led to Sinofsky’s departure — Dieter Bohn at The Verge
- How Steven Sinofsky changed Microsoft, for better and for worse — Ed Bott at ZDNet
- Sinofsky’s departure from Microsoft: Politics or products to blame? — Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet
Shareholders have already braced themselves for a drop in value — not the $60 or $70 that Apple’s has dropped to the low, low, low price of $540 a share after Forstall’s and Browett’s departure announcements — but by about a buck to $27-and-change at the time of this writing.