Steven Sinofsky Talks Microsoft, and Reasons for Leaving It

Posted by : Games Saturday, June 1, 2013

Steven Sinofsky left Microsoft in November 2012, after 23 years with the company and just weeks after ushering the company through the development of its first hardware computing product and delivering to market Windows 8, an operating system overhaul meant to refresh the company and its image. (For some users, the overhaul was too dramatic, and on May 30 Microsoft updated the OS to version 8.1, bringing back the Start Button.) Sinofsky's quick and unexpected departure left the industry to speculate that the man expected to take over for CEO Steve Ballmer was frustrated by how slowly that seat was being vacated, that he had asked for something big that Ballmer had declined, or that he was frustrated with decisions or colleagues at the company. At the D: All Things D event May 30, Sinofsky told interviewers Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg that he simply needed to be out from under the Microsoft umbrella in order to grow and learn and think. He's currently teaching at Harvard, blogging and trying to chat with folks around the industry.

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