Former Nokia CEO Elop Leaving Microsoft

By Shira Ovide 

Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella continues to put his stamp on the company, announcing Wednesday an executive shuffle that involves the departure of former Nokia Corp. chief Stephen Elop.

Mr. Elop was the biggest surprise departure in the executive shuffle. Two other Microsoft executives, Kirill Tatarinov and Eric Rudder, will, like Mr. Elop "leave Microsoft after a designated transition period," the company said in a news release. Separately, Mark Penn, who had served in a senior strategist role, is leaving Microsoft as well.

Mr. Elop's departure is the latest sign Microsoft is hitting the reset button on its struggling smartphone hardware business. The more than $9 billion purchase of Nokia's handset business--a deal struck by Mr. Nadella's predecessor Steve Ballmer in late 2013--was supposed to make Microsoft a relevant player in smartphones.

Instead under Mr. Elop's leadership at Microsoft, the company's Windows smartphones lost market share and bled red ink. The company recently said it planned to further cut costs at the smartphone business and other hardware units. Nokia already was targeted for thousands of job cuts in the biggest layoffs in Microsoft's history, announced last year.

Microsoft's hardware devices businesses, which Mr. Elop ran, will now be folded into a new division with Microsoft's operating systems group. Terry Myerson, also an executive vice president, will lead the division.

Write to Shira Ovide at [e-mail]

Chelsey Dulaney contributed to this article

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