Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has been appointed the new head of Microsoft’s Devices and Studios, which includes games, entertainment, Xbox, and the Surface. This move was announced in a February 24th internal memo by Microsoft’s Executive Vice President Julie Larson-Green that was obtained by Techcrunch.
Elop joined Microsoft at the end of 2013 when Microsoft purchased Nokia’s Devices and Services Division, and was one of the of the candidate’s on Microsoft’s short list to replace Stephen Balmer as CEO of Microsoft, a job that ultimately went to Staya Nadella.
He is a somewhat perplexing choice to head this division, as his tenure at the head of Nokia saw the company lose market share relevance and his actions to turn it around faced heavy criticism. Elop also said he would be willing to sell the xbox division this past November when he was lobbying for the position of CEO of the company. It is unclear to many that Elop is the right person to lead this division, as it tries to recover from the disastrous Xbox One unveiling.
As for Julie Larson-Green, she has moved on to head the My Life & Work group inside of the Applications and Services Group. This position is a lower position than the one she held before, but as per tech crunch is not seen as a demotion. She will still head the Devices and Studios Division until the Nokia deal is finalized and Elop formally joins Microsoft.
