The president of Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:) Windows division, Steven Sinofsky, has left the company … and Wall Street is not happy about it.
Sinofsky, who joined the company 23 years ago, was critical in the development of Office and Windows. In fact, he was considered to be a likely candidate to replace Steve Ballmer as CEO.
However, sources inside the company told that Sinofsky was too power-hungry and caused dissension within the executive ranks. It probably doesn’t help that Microsoft has many divisions, with executives who want to maintain their control.
Still, the departure of Sinofsky could be a big problem. Microsoft is at a critical point as it tries to navigate from PCs to the mobile revolution, and investors showed their displeasure by hammering MSFT shares by more than 3% in early trading.
Still, there’s plenty of opportunity ahead for Sinofsky, who is just 47 years old. , he said: “My passion for building products is as strong as ever and I look forward [to] focusing my energy and creativity along similar lines.”
Tom Taulli runs the InvestorPlace blog IPOPlaybook, a site dedicated to the hottest news and rumors about initial public offerings. He is also the author of “” Follow him on Twitter at . As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
