The Wall Street Journal-20080111-Microsoft Taps Co-President- Elop Will Head Business Division- Succeeding Raikes
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Microsoft Taps Co-President; Elop Will Head Business Division, Succeeding Raikes
Microsoft Corp. has hired the chief operating officer of networking equipment maker Juniper Networks Inc. to replace co-President Jeff Raikes, a longtime Microsoft executive who is resigning from the company.
The Redmond, Wash., software maker said Stephen Elop, 44 years old, will join Microsoft at the end of January as president of its business division. He will be one of three executives who hold the title of president, joining Robbie Bach, president of the company's entertainment and devices division, and Kevin Johnson, president of its platforms and services division.
Mr. Raikes, 49, oversees the business division, Microsoft's second- largest unit, including its Office software applications. He will serve as a member of Microsoft's management team, guiding strategy until he departs in September, the company said.
Mr. Elop served as operations chief at Juniper for a year following a long stint at software maker Macromedia, where he was president and chief executive when Adobe Systems Inc. bought that company in 2005. At Adobe, Mr. Elop became president of world-wide field operations, a sales job.
The hiring adds another operations specialist to the mix of people who could possibly run Microsoft in the future. Over the past several years Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has tried to fill out Microsoft's top ranks with outsiders, some of whom with grooming might succeed him some day.
Mr. Raikes's resignation marks the end of a chapter at Microsoft. The Nebraska native joined Microsoft in 1981 and was instrumental in the growth of its Office set of applications, which include Word, Excel and PowerPoint programs.
In his new role, Mr. Elop will face challenges as a host of new competitors try to pick away at Office with Internet services. An important part of Mr. Elop's job will be to guide the expansion of Microsoft's own Internet services for business.
