It looks like Microsoft will be appointing former Nokia chief, Stephen Elop, as head of its devices and services division.<\/p>\n
That means the guy who led the way for Nokia will now take over the reins for entertainment, games, Xbox and Surface over at Microsoft.<\/p>\n
Elop is expected to take over the division once the Microsoft-Nokia deal goes through.<\/p>\n
The position was supposed to go to Julie Larson-Green – the leading force behind the design of Windows 8 – but since Microsoft bought Nokia, Elop got to jump the line of succession.<\/p>\n
The Microsoft-Nokia deal isn’t quite in the bag yet, but is more than likely to get all approvals needed to seal the deal.<\/p>\n
“I’ll remain in (the) role leading the DnS (Devices and Studios) organization in the interim until the Nokia deal closes and Stephen Elop makes his transition to Microsoft,” Larson-Green said in an email to colleagues which was obtained by Reuters.<\/p>\n
Elop was previously one of the candidates in the running to take Microsoft’s top job – a position which went to the company’s cloud services head, Satya Nadella.<\/p>\n
It was widely reported – citing three “sources” close to Bloomberg – that Elop would have actually considered selling off the Xbox business and re-focus the company around its Office software.<\/p>\n
Ironically, he will now be heading up that division.<\/p>\n
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