Kevin Johnson -- whether he jumped or was pushed from his perch at Microsoft -- must be breathing easier today, and not because he's landed the CEO gig at network gear manufacturer Juniper Netwoks effective September.
Johnson's job at Microsoft, head of the Platforms and Services Group, involved some seriously thankless and frustrating work. He's the one who had to negotiate, unsuccessfully, a merger with Yahoo. He's the one who had to turn the Microsoft ship around to face the juggernaut that is Google in the online search and advertising space. While also in charge of the dominant Windows operating system, much of his job must have been a continuous, rhythmic banging of cranium against wall.
Yahoo's intransigence -- you have to think the advertising deal it signed with Google while Redmond was still knocking on the door was at least in part a one-finger salute waved in Microsoft's face -- was embittering. Meanwhile, Microsoft's own online services outfit lost nearly half a billion dollars in the last quarter. Don't know about you, but if I had to face that every day, I wouldn't be sleeping well the night before.
On the other hand, Google can seem to do no wrong, and has shown some genius at unpredictable business strategy. Every Web site that optimizes for search optimizes based on its understanding of what works for Google. Why? Because everyone. Uses. Google. It's a verb, for heaven's sake.
Microsoft has a history of coming late to a game and elbowing out the competition. (Just ask Diane Greene, late of VMware, largely because the company has a big target on its back and Microsoft's cannon trained on it.) But that's tended to be in product. Online search and advertising isn't a product, and Google is so well-entrenched that this might be the one fight Microsoft can't win.
So congratulations, Mr. Johnson. You do realize, of course, that now it's Cisco.