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Bob Muglia, the president of Microsoft’s Server and Tools business is out and it looks like he has been pushed:
Bob Muglia, head of servers and tools, is leaving Microsoft this summer.
In a memo to employees, Steve Ballmer says he’s conducting a search internally and externally for a replacement.
He also says, "I have decided that now is the time to put new leadership in place for STB," which makes it seem like he’s tossing Muglia.
Server and tools is Microsoft’s third biggest businesses. It generated $4 billion in revenue last quarter.
Click through for the full text of Ballmer’s memo but here’s the pertinent clip:
The best time to think about change is when you are in a position of strength, and that’s where we are today with STB – leading the server business, successful with our developer tools, and poised to lead the rapidly emerging cloud future. Bob Muglia and I have been talking about the overall business and what is needed to accelerate our growth. In this context, I have decided that now is the time to put new leadership in place for STB. This is simply recognition that all businesses go through cycles and need new and different talent to manage through those cycles. Bob has been a phenomenal partner throughout this process, and he and his leadership team have the right strategy in place.
In conjunction with this leadership change, Bob has decided to leave Microsoft this summer.
Sounds like he was definitely pushed. I have often said that Server and Tools gets no respect at Microsoft while it has built success after success in a much more competitive environment than that facing the other Microsoft cash cows of Windows (client) and Office and this is apparently just more of the same. One surely has to wonder what Ballmer is thinking since there are numerous other areas in Microsoft that could really use a shakeup. Anyhow, Muglia gets to run the operation until a new leader is found and then bring him/her onboard before departing.
Microsoft today announced that the Azure (cloud services) group is leaving Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie’s adtech team for the mainline product organization. Azure is being combined with the Windows Server & Solutions Group run by Bill Laing to form the Server & Cloud Division (SCD) under Senior Vice President Amitabh Srivastava reporting to Bob Muglia, the president of Microsoft’s Server and Tools business. If your scorecard is getting a little crowded with all the crossouts and connecting lines, Mary Jo Foley persuaded a Microsoft spokesman to provide the current Server and Tools lineup:
1. Business Online Services Division (led by David Thompson) (*NOTE: development only)
2. Business Platform Division (led by Ted Kummert)
3. Developer Division (led by S. Somagasar)
4. Identity and Security Division (led by Lee Nackman)
5. Management and Services Division (led by Brad Anderson)
6. Developer and Platform Evangelism (DPE, led by Walid Abu-Hadba)
7. Server and Tools Marketing Group (STMG, led by Robert Wahbe)
8. Server and Cloud Division (led by Amitabh Srivastava)
Today, Microsoft announced the promotion of Bob Muglia:
Microsoft rewarded one of its longest-serving executives, Bob Muglia, with a promotion today. He was named president of the Server and Tools Business, an operating segment that has turned in a streak of 25 consecutive quarters of double-digit growth. It’s not immediately clear whether the change is part of an organizational shift that would make Server and Tools its own division.
I have commented in the past that Server and Tools is the Rodney Dangerfield of Microsoft because it seems to get no organizational respect despite regularly turning in stellar performances. More background on Mr. Muglia and his comeback from a disastrous stint as head of Microsoft’s Internet business is in this Wall Street Journal article.
There was quite a surprise today as Microsoft announced that Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division (MBD) will be retiring in September and the replacement is Stephen Elop, current COO of Juniper Networks and former CEO of Macromedia before it was acquired by Adobe:
