Photo by Aaron Greenberg

Summary: Amid problems inside the abusive monopolist, Microsoft, key people continue to leave

Microsoft's CIO left Microsoft amid very negative publicity and also revelations about large-scale AstroTurfing by Microsoft. It is harder to find optimism about Microsoft's future these days. When the latest CFO quit it looked like Microsoft was trying to gag him (like prevention of an Enron moment [1, 2]). No layoffs per se were announced on Monday as some expected, but the Xbox chief joined many others who are quitting Microsoft in droves. To quote just a few reports:

• Zynga founder to be replaced by Microsoft's Xbox chief as CEO

  Struggling games company's shares soar in anticipation that chief executive Mark Pincus would be replaced by Don Mattrick





• The man behind the Xbox One, Don Mattrick, might be leaving Microsoft for Zynga

  Don Mattrick, Microsoft’s President of Interactive Entertainment Business, has been the focus of a lot of backlash recently. The Xbox One has been a huge PR nightmare for Redmond, and it seems it’s taking a toll on the man heading up the Xbox team. Reports are now coming in that Don Mattrick plans on leaving Microsoft in favor of taking on an executive role at Zynga — the troubled casual gaming company.

Here is a better headline ("The Man in Charge of Xbox Is Leaving Microsoft") which does not obey Microsoft's face-saving spin. Zynga can't do much to harm GNU and Linux (maybe just Android), so threat of entryism is not so relevant here. ⬆