Bonum Certa Men Certa

Another Microsoft Vice President Abandons the Company


Any more corporate vice presidents left to jump ship?



Summary: Enrique Rodriguez is the latest corporate vice president to leave Microsoft ”to pursue other interests” and Microsoft is already spinning the news, having previously hidden it

THE GREAT exodus of Microsoft managers continues in its destructive path that breeds disarray. Microsoft still announces these departures secretly (or lets them be known a long time after the actual departures, usually upon questioning). It is essentially hiding or sweeping bad news under the rug using those classic and shameless euphemisms like "reorganisation", which is what Microsoft and Novell typically call it when there is an en masse departure (exodus) leaving a management vacuum. The departure of Rodriguez is almost impossible to find, but it was bundled and lumped onto another blog post.

Earlier this week, Microsoft reorg’d the TV, Video and Media (TVM) group, which was headed by Corporate Vice President Enrique Rodriguez. Rodriquez has left the company (”decided to pursue other interests”).


Wow. Why didn't Microsoft announce this? At first it was unknown what would happen to Rodriguez, but Microsoft watcher Joseph Tartakoff eventually confirmed that he was leaving.

According to Tartakoff, "Last February, Microsoft split the Zune team along hardware and software lines, putting Zune software—like the ZunePass music subscription service—under Rodriguez, while placing the Zune hardware business under the auspices of a Windows Mobile executive."

“I don't think Microsoft can differentiate between truth and lie now...”
      --Goblin
It seems like Windows Mobile is indeed due to appear only next year [1, 2], as some recent rumours suggested. This is disastrous to Windows as Linux is already making huge gains. Microsoft responds to this by throwing FUD at mobile Linux (leading to backlash) because it's the only strategy Microsoft understands.

Microsoft basically chooses the Linux FUD that "choice is detrimental", which is a myth that has been debunked a lot, more recently even by Nokia (which champions Symbian and dominates the mobile market). We also found a couple of UK-based journalists who are typically hostile towards Linux (Kelly Fiveash is one of them) spreading the myth that only people are are paid to code will ever write Free software like Linux. It is important to watch how (and respond to) the Microsoft boosters try to spin good news about developers being paid to write GPL-licensed code as something that's bad news for Linux. It is rather amazing how dishonest one can be given the convictions and sometimes the incentives from Microsoft. The recipe for spinning good news as bad news (and vice versa) can also be seen above, as a departure of a vice president gets described as something positive, a "reorganisation".

"I think Microsoft has become so caught up in its own PR it actually believes everything it says," said our reader Goblin last night, adding: "I don't think Microsoft can differentiate between truth and lie now [...] and those MS employee's that know the truth, won't dare say it because they'll lose their jobs. [...] there was a chap who was left behind in WW1 and believed the war was still going on.....that's a little how Ballmer is, he is told what he wants to hear and the wibbly wobbly world he lives in is not the one everyone else is....that explains his bizarre behavior."

Our reader FurnaceBoy shrewdly said that "truth is sunlight to the Microsoft vampire" and Goblin then found this gem from the news:

Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg said in a recent interview:
We never intended to ever mislead people. [...]


Right. Of course.

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