Even Steven Sinofsky is gone. I had talked about my concerns with Microsoft just few weeks ago but this announcement comes to me as a surprise. There is a lot of speculation on the reasons why Steven quit, and forget about his official goodbye note which is obviously forged so shareholders don’t take his move as a destabilizing sign for the company. For sure I can say that Steven was highly respected in Redmond, I think that in some cases he was way more respected than Ballmer. Indeed many MSFT’s employees thought that Sinofsky was the number one candidate for replacing Ballmer as the company CEO. Don’t get me wrong, Ballmer remains an icon for some Microsoft old timers like me, how can people forget his drive and enthusiasm at the company meetings? But at that time he was the VP of Sales, totally different role. As a CEO Ballmer has failed to deliver and many are tired of his leadership. For sure Ballmer is a guy that will not let anything or anybody stand in his way, that could be why I saw so many top executives quietly and surprisingly leaving the company in the last few years. Steve Sinofsky’s announcement that he is going to seek for other opportunities says it all and quite honestly having done exactly the same thing I totally can understand how he feels: it’s only politics that rule Microsoft these days. Last but not least, I wonder if this had anything to do with it…