Summary: Exodus continues at Microsoft and as head of the Symbian Foundation leaves we reconsider the role of Elop at Nokia

IT was only earlier this month that we wrote about Călin Tatomir, whose role with Microsoft (MD/head in Romania) had him associated with some controversial behavior such as whatever we covered in:

• Microsoft and Romania: Follow the Money
• More Dirty Deals in Europe Involve Microsoft, Microsoft Lobbies
• Ballot Stuffer from Redmond Stuffs Another FOSS Conference (Romania)
• Quick Mention: It's Romania's Turn for Microsoft's OOXML Stacking
• Microsoft 'Vampires' Suck Blood of Romania's OOXML Voters, Supporters

Well, Răzvan Sandu has just told us that "Călin Tatomir resigns as CEO of Microsoft Romania" and a translation of the report in Romanian can be found here. Tatomir's departure comes amid many other high-level departures including Ozzie's. Maybe the CEO of Microsoft will also leave soon. Some people seem to be very much in favour of it.

As always, departure of Microsoft bigwigs leads to increased risk of entryism (their absorption along with influence inside other companies). Let's consider what happened in Nokia after Microsoft's president Elop had been made its CEO. We wrote about this subject in:

• If You Can't Beat Them, Hijack Them (Microsoft Joins Nokia and It Already Shows)
• Linux Battle in Mobile Phones Becomes Primarily Legal, Not Technical, Due to Software Patents
• Taking Over Linux, by Proxy
• Microsoft Passes More of Its Executives to the MSBBC. What About Nokia?
• Microsoft President Quits, But is Nokia the Next Victim?
• Microsoft Insiders Galore: BBC, Nokia, Others Already Damaged by Microsoft Hires
• Linspire/Ballnux in Tablets; HP Possibly Experiments With Vista 7 in Slate After Abandoning It, Then Hiring From Microsoft
• New Article Says Nokia Might be Bought by Microsoft After Appointing Microsoft President as CEO
• Entryism Watch: Yahoo! Keeps Being Abducted by Microsoft Executives, HP Cancels Android Projects After CEO Appointment From SAP
• As Expected, Nokia and HP Betray Linux Under Microsoft-sympathetic New Leadership

Shortly after the departure of Ari the MeeGo manager (he was their top Linux guy) comes this departure of the head of the Symbian Foundation:

It’s not just the OEM partners that are abandoning Symbian; its executive staff is jumping ship too.

The Symbian Foundation announced that Executive Director Lee M. Williams is stepping down, effective immediately. Symbian Foundation CFO Tim Holbrow has been appointed by the Foundation’s Board of Directors to take his place.

Before joining the Foundation, Williams led the S60 Software organization in Nokia’s Device unit. He was appointed to lead the Foundation in October 2008.

[...]

Nokia proper has had several high-profile leadership changes over the past three months, including the recent departure of Ari Jaaksi, the head of Nokia’s MeeGo division. That came just one month after Stephen Elop became Nokia’s new CEO and Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia’s head of mobile solutions, resigned.

Let's hope that Nokia will keep its strong Qt and Linux (MeeGo) focus. It's worrying that some rumours suggest experimentation with Vista Phone 7 [sic] at Nokia just shortly after the joining of a new CEO from Microsoft. ⬆