Elop could kill Bing and sell Xbox if he's made CEO

[stalemate1]

Recent reports suggest the company has shortlisted Ford CEO Alan Mulally and former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop as external candidates. Mulally has stated he has no intentions to leave Ford, but a Bloomberg report claims that Elop has big plans if he?s made CEO.

Elop?s return to Microsoft in the CEO position would reportedly involve a push for Office on Android and iOS. Elop is reportedly considering a strategy shift away from Microsoft?s tradition of Office running primarily on Windows PCs. Elop?s potential strategy is said to involve maximizing sales of Office instead of using it to push Windows PC and tablet sales.

Bloomberg also suggests that Elop is willing to shut down or sell some major Microsoft businesses. Elop would reportedly considering killing off the company?s Bing search engine, while contemplating selling the Xbox business.

Some investors and analysts have previously called for the software giant to split off its Xbox business and give up on search. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen appears to feel the same way. Allen?s $15 billion asset manager, Paul Ghaffari, revealed recently that Bing and Xbox have been distractions for Microsoft. "My view is there are some parts of that operation they should probably spin out, get rid of, to focus on the enterprise and focus on the cloud." Nomura analyst Rick Sherlund claims Microsoft?s financial earnings could be boosted by 40 percent in fiscal 2015 if the company sold its Bing and Xbox businesses.

Any sale of Bing or Xbox seems unlikely, despite continued suggestions over the years. Microsoft is moving to integrate its search engine experience directly into Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone, and the company is just weeks away from launching its next-generation Xbox One console. Bing also powers a number Xbox search and app features.

Source: Rumour: Elop to consider dropping Bing and Xbox if appointed Microsoft CEO? | Windows Phone Central

No wonder Ford looks like it does....

 

[ohgood]

Elop will make out like a bandit, no matter the condition of any company he's with.

The haters will hate.
The fan boys will fan.

And he'll laugh from his beach chair.

Pawns. Go outside.

 

[Reflexx]

Stop arguing with everyone on here. No, XBOX is a huge money maker for MS and like I said probably their most profitable sector. You have the adverts which come in the dashboard which in itself makes them a lot of money, you have the games and developers, the consoles themselves and all the additional hardware you can buy for them and lets not forget XBOX live.

Stop arguing with everyone else on here? LoL

You're wrong about XBOX. They're a TINY portion of MS's profits.

 

[anony_mouse]

If I am a Microsoft shareholder, I think Bing should indeed be sold or closed. MS have given it a good run and it's never achieved much. I hope they sell it so some competition remains in the search market, but MS shareholders don't want to pay for it any more. I can't see it has much strategic value to MS in its current form.
Xbox probably makes money, I expect that will stay.
Thinking more broadly, there is something to be said for splitting up Microsoft. Tying their products closely together (think Office/Windows, Exchange/Windows, IE/Windows) works when they have a large share of all markets, but makes their products less attractive when users have devices on several platforms. Splitting their product lines into truly independent businesses reduces the tempation to do this.
And in general, I expect MS to become more like a conventional business over time - maximising short/medium term profit rather than focussing on long term strategy.

 

[Reflexx]

Bing is much more than just a regular search engine.

One reason that it's so difficult for large successful dominant companies to stay that way is because of the lack of foresight by shareholders.

Bing is a huge and complex data aggregation system that can potentially affect all of MS's products and services. Getting rid of it weakens the long term strategy.

Guys like Ballmer, that have a love for MS, support Bing because they want to see MS successful into the next few decades.

But because it is a public company, there will always be those who are looking to increase their short term profitability even if it hurts the long term. They'll have sold their shares already by then.

I do think that Ballmer, Gates, and others who aren't so concerned with short term profits are still the majority, but that doesn't mean that the other investors are sitting quietly.

 

[techiez]

Bing is much more than just a regular search engine.

One reason that it's so difficult for large successful dominant companies to stay that way is because of the lack of foresight by shareholders.

Bing is a huge and complex data aggregation system that can potentially affect all of MS's products and services. Getting rid of it weakens the long term strategy.

Guys like Ballmer, that have a love for MS, support Bing because they want to see MS successful into the next few decades.

But because it is a public company, there will always be those who are looking to increase their short term profitability even if it hurts the long term. They'll have sold their shares already by then.

I do think that Ballmer, Gates, and others who aren't so concerned with short term profits are still the majority, but that doesn't mean that the other investors are sitting quietly.

Bing has really long way to go specially in Non US markets where MS needs to do a lot to promote it, it is practically non existent in terms of market share in many countries. It was launched so much time back but MS was concentrating only on US till now and Google adopted many interesting features of bing and launced worldwide and ppl think google is forward thinking, ppl would be thinking bing copied google if bing tries to publicize in these markets.

 

[Jazmac]

I don't like what I read about Elop. I don't think he did much for Nokia to save it and based on this, he doesn't seem to have his arms around anything but what he had before, MSOffice. I vote thumbs down on Elop to lead MS. Personally, I don't want a google search but Elop seems to embrace it.

 

[snowmutt]

Wow. Fun thread, with a little bit of dead concern in these posts as well.

Here are two problems for us that enjoy MS consumer services like XBOX, Bing, and for that matter WP:

-MS can easily survive without them. They are only important to the "growth" side of MS. If MS wants to shed them and provide 100% enterprise solutions, they would be able to. I am a fan of what I use by them and basically all MS right now (short of our PS3), but I am not blinded here. It will take the right CEO to keep all these products in place. Which brings me to point #2:

-MS has taken these products as far as they can without HUGE investments going into the next CEO's administration. As user after user has pointed out, Bing world wide is subpar to poor. I love it, but here in the US it has been refined. World wide it needs a huge ecostructure to thrive. XBOX needs to get it's services to the next level to get everything out of the ONE that it is designed to be. As a pure gaming unit. it is too expensive. It needs a HUGE ecosystem to get all the services out of it's users it is capable of, and MS needs to get their money out of it.

I do not want MS to drop either. But, the next CEO has to walk in eyes wide open to the shortcomings and challenges.

I also worry: If the axe starts to drop on consumer products, how much does this hurt WP's development and support? Of course the purchise of the hardware division ensures that MS doen't drop it, but they sure may take it in a different direction.

 

[Oliver Newell]

Sorry Oliver, but Xbox is the opposite of what you said. It's not a huge money maker at all. See my post here where I explained it earlier. Just because an item sells millions doesn't mean it earns you a lot of money. Microsofts money making side of their business is the Enterprise and Office stuff by a long way, they eclipse anything Xbox does Income wise. That's why you hear investors talk about selling them off, they just look at the profit numbers etc not through the eyes of users and people who have a long term plan for the products. Like I also said earlier, I'm not posting this to start a heated debate or downplay the Xbox, but it seems some are unaware of where Microsoft earns most of it's money, which is understandable if you don't look at their financial reports and articles etc.

I do agree with most people on here that the Xbox is becoming more and more integrated with Microsofts other services, same with Bing being integrated into more stuff. And in my opinion both are going in the right direction. I wouldn't want either to be sold off... I use and like both of them

Right, so its probably not THE most profitable sector MS has, but it is incredibly valuable for Microsoft. There are several ways MS makes their money from XBOX, from adverts to XBOX live, and the 3rd party hardware which comes with them, which these companies like Logic have to pay Microsoft. Not only that it's a way for advertising MS and its products, gains audience and gives people a reason to explore other Microsoft products.

Also the last time MS received much larger profits from XBOX was in 2005/2006 when the 360 came out, even to this day it is making them money so it is a long term product for Microsoft, unlike Office which has a new version release ever year nearly. Also, these days, there are more competitors to
Office such as Apache open office and libre.

Anyways, the fact remains that this hole rumour is most likely complete rubbish. Both Bing and XBOX have established themselves to a point where Microsoft would have to change many of their products if they were sold off.

 

[squire777]

Why should we as consumers care about how much much profit MS is making or how much their stock price is? Their revenue seems to be increasing all the time so it is not the case that they are in any financial trouble. Reading some of the comments here it looks like some people are acting as if MS is having trouble staying afloat. MS is not where Ford was, and not where Nokia was. Don't be blinded by Wall Street types - selling off certain divisions would be nothing more than a quick, greedy money grab.

Also, even though XBox may mot have huge profit margins, it is probably the division that has the best reputation amongst the public. Ask the average person on the street what the best thing about MS is and they will most likely say XBox.

You could probably kiss Windows Phone goodbye too if they do decide to sell off divisions.

 

[techiez]

Now whether or Elop becomes the CEO, but he remains head of the devices division under which exNokia team would continue to churn out devices, now what Nokia did in last 2 years was their ongoing R&D before Elop took over, pureview for example. Looking at What elop did at Nokia and these reports about bing n xbox I dont think he is willing to invest in innovation and thinking just like an accountant and lacking vision, so is he the right person to lead this new wing under MS?

 

[KKRLessey]

Don't please Elop!!

 

[techiez]

Why should we as consumers care about how much much profit MS is making or how much their stock price is? Their revenue seems to be increasing all the time so it is not the case that they are in any financial trouble. Reading some of the comments here it looks like some people are acting as if MS is having trouble staying afloat. MS is not where Ford was, and not where Nokia was. Don't be blinded by Wall Street types - selling off certain divisions would be nothing more than a quick, greedy money grab.

Also, even though XBox may mot have huge profit margins, it is probably the division that has the best reputation amongst the public. Ask the average person on the street what the best thing about MS is and they will most likely say XBox.

You could probably kiss Windows Phone goodbye too if they do decide to sell off divisions.

+1.


I wuld also like to see a xbox phone, remember the Nokia Ngage series. this should be on similar lines, I dont understand what happened to risk taking, everybody is so scared of investors. this would only lead to companies become obsolete before they know it.

 

[WP8fan]

If it's true then I hope Elop doesn't get the job. I think Elop has gained deep knowledge in running a phone device company and maybe he should stay in that division of MS. Look at HP after they put Apotheker as their CEO. Apotheker had been the CEO of SAP the world's second largest software company -- he was experienced as an enterprise software leader but he was ineffective managing HP. HP's market value nose-dived quarter after quarter. At one point there was talk of getting rid of their PC/laptop business. Apotheker was quickly replaced. I would hate to see MS go through something similar. Hopefully they (MS) have been grooming internal candidates to take over for Ballmer.

 

[Laura Knotek]

While I agree that right now (especially at launch) that the Xbox isn't a money maker, it could be. COULD. They could make Xbox music a great experience and that could take music sales from google play and iTunes, they could do the same with Xbox video. Hell, they could produce their own content with their own exclusives. This is the reason I don't want them to sell the Xbox division, it has tons of potential to be an all in one entertainment system. Why get a smart tv if your Xbox does the same thing? Idk, I hope whoever the next CEO is looks past the current sales and sees the potential for the future.

I think at this point many people already have other places where they buy their music and movies (or stream their music and movies). I never even heard of the Zune Store until I joined this forum. I never owned a Zune, nor knew anybody who owned a Zune. Everyone either had iPods or some other MP3 players. I had a Sandisk MP3 player. I didn't like iTunes, so I turned to eMusic and Amazon.com for my MP3s. I've since cancelled my eMusic subscription, but I still use Amazon.com to purchase music.

I've never been one to buy movies, but I've been a member of Netflix before Netflix even offered streaming, and I might join Amazon Prime for more movies/TV shows (since it would also get me free shipping on products from Amazon.com).

Since I never had any interest in games, Xbox (and its music/movies) never appealed to me. I already had sources for music and movies, plus I like Amazon.com anyway for regular shopping.

I think that's the main issue Microsoft is facing with Xbox music and movies. How do they get someone like me to switch to their service? What can Xbox music/movies offer to someone like me who isn't a gamer that is better or cheaper than Netflix or Amazon.com? I can see where a lot of people, even those who don't use iTunes, already have sources of movies/music and there isn't anything offered by Xbox Music/Movies that is better than what they already use.

 

[Laura Knotek]

+1.


I wuld also like to see a xbox phone, remember the Nokia Ngage series. this should be on similar lines, I dont understand what happened to risk taking, everybody is so scared of investors. this would only lead to companies become obsolete before they know it.

Actually, I don't remember the Ngage series, but I'm from the US, and Nokia never had a big presence here.

 

[tgp]

I think at this point many people already have other places where they buy their music and movies (or stream their music and movies). I never even heard of the Zune Store until I joined this forum. I never owned a Zune, nor knew anybody who owned a Zune. Everyone either had iPods or some other MP3 players. I had a Sandisk MP3 player. I didn't like iTunes, so I turned to eMusic and Amazon.com for my MP3s. I've since cancelled my eMusic subscription, but I still use Amazon.com to purchase music.

I've never been one to buy movies, but I've been a member of Netflix before Netflix even offered streaming, and I might join Amazon Prime for more movies/TV shows (since it would also get me free shipping on products from Amazon.com).

Since I never had any interest in games, Xbox (and its music/movies) never appealed to me. I already had sources for music and movies, plus I like Amazon.com anyway for regular shopping.

I think that's the main issue Microsoft is facing with Xbox music and movies. How do they get someone like me to switch to their service? What can Xbox music/movies offer to someone like me who isn't a gamer that is better or cheaper than Netflix or Amazon.com? I can see where a lot of people, even those who don't use iTunes, already have sources of movies/music and there isn't anything offered by Xbox Music/Movies that is better than what they already use.

This is basically where I'm at. I use Amazon Prime for movies & shopping, and I like how it provides movies & excellent shipping options under one subscription. I'm not a gamer. All this together means that Xbox has nothing for me.

And I did know someone with a Zune, but that was only because he found it laying in his front yard. I don't think he ever used it much. Now he just uses his phone. It's iPods or MP3 players everywhere!

 

[Laura Knotek]

This is basically where I'm at. I use Amazon Prime for movies & shopping, and I like how it provides movies & excellent shipping options under one subscription. I'm not a gamer. All this together means that Xbox has nothing for me.

And I did know someone with a Zune, but that was only because he found it laying in his front yard. I don't think he ever used it much. Now he just uses his phone. It's iPods or MP3 players everywhere!

One of my friends had a co-worker who had a Zune, but I never met that person. That's the only person with a Zune that even my family/friends knew. Nobody I personally knew had a Zune.

 

[Reflexx]

Actually, I don't remember the Ngage series, but I'm from the US, and Nokia never had a big presence here.

It may be before your time, but Nokia used to have a HUGE presence here. They were THE cell phone company. The closest competitor was Motorola, and everyone else was basically chopped liver.

 

[Laura Knotek]

It may be before your time, but Nokia used to have a HUGE presence here. They were THE cell phone company. The closest competitor was Motorola, and everyone else was basically chopped liver.

I do remember, but those were feature phones. Nokia didn't have many smartphones here. Palms and BlackBerrys were the popular smartphones in the early smartphone era.