Departed Windows chief Steven Sinofsky denies that he tried to combine Microsoft's Windows and Windows Phone operations under his control, one of the rumored reasons behind Sinofsky's sudden departure from Microsoft this week.
Sinofsky's denial that he made such a power grab came in a comment he made Thursday in response to a blog, called "Live Long and Prosper SteveSi" posted Wednesday on the Hal's (Im)Perfect Vision site.
"If we had worked together you would know that, historically, very few things moved into teams I managed as (you've no doubt seen in internal blogs) and when they did I usually pushed back hard looking for a cross-group way to achieve the goal (in other words, decide open issues rather than force an org change to subsequently decide something)," Sinofsky said. "It is far better to collaborate with the org[anization] in place and avoid the disruption unless it is on a product cycle boundary and far better to plan and execute together than just organize together."
[Related: Microsoft Partners Weigh Sinofsky's Departure, Windows 8 Direction]
In the blog, Hal Berenson, president of True Mountain Group LLC, had speculated that a reason for Sinofsky's departure is that he had fought to bring both the Windows Phone and Windows developer operations under his control.
"Steven had apparently lost recent battles to bring both Windows Phone and the Developer Division under his control," Berenson wrote. "I suspect that he saw those loses both as a roadblock to where he wanted to take Windows over the next few years, and a clear indication that his political power within Microsoft had peaked. At the very point where he should have been able to ask for, and receive, almost anything as reward for his proven success he got slapped down. And so he chose to leave."
Sinofsky disputed that theory. "I never initiated any discussions to bring together the organizations/products you describe and no one ever approached me to manage them as part of Windows 7 or 8. Basic organization theory ... would support the current state as a practical working model," he wrote.
PUBLISHED NOV. 15, 2012
