Jonathon Trugman

Jonathon Trugman

Business

Big changes at Microsoft starting with CEO’s retirement

Nowadays social media are getting all the buzz. Look no further than Twitter’s spectacular IPO Thursday or Facebook’s move into mobile.

But they aren’t the only ones innovating out West.

Yes, Microsoft is finally waking up.

If you thought Microsoft is very yesterday or passé, you would have been right for the last 10 years.

But real change is afoot at the Redmond, Wash., behemoth. For starters, on Aug. 20 it announced that Chief Executive Steve Ballmer will retire once a replacement is found.

On Sept. 3, the company announced a $7 billion deal to acquire Nokia’s handset division and its patents, assuring a route into mobile.

Ballmer took over for Bill Gates in January of 2000, and the last 13 years have been full of false starts and product flops, talent drain and a huge competitive loss to Apple and Google — and hence, major shareholder indigestion.

The stock price is off 35 percent since Ballmer took over.

Ironically, however awful a CEO Ballmer was, he is leaving the company in the best shape it’s been in for quite some time product-wise. Shares are up 40 percent this year.

And changes are arriving. Microsoft has finally decided to bring a new Xbox to market, the Xbox One. It’s a complete redo that builds on the Xbox’s smashing success.

Microsoft’s Surface tablet competes directly with the iPad, but it is more business- and student- friendly, whereas the iPad is more entertainment-oriented.

For the first time, Microsoft has a legitimate, fully integrated hardware and software system designed for each other.

On Wednesday, the stock made a multiyear high on talk that both Alan Mulally, who turned around Boeing and Ford, and Stephen Elop, Nokia’s former CEO, are on the short list to replace Ballmer.

It’s exciting to see Microsoft finally begin to innovate again, because it’s been a while since anybody has challenged the Apple- Google-Facebook cartel as King of the Tech Playground.