Microsoft's former Windows Phone chief shifted to head of corporate development and strategy
Microsoft's Andy Lees, who was moved out of the top Windows Phone job less than a year ago, has been shifted to the head of corporate development and strategy at the software giant, a company spokesperson has confirmed.
Context & Ripple Effects
Andy Lees has been in limbo since December 2011, when Microsoft removed him from the top Windows Phone job in a move The Verge traced through an internal power shift rather than a clean handover. Today's confirmation gives that limbo an answer: he lands as head of corporate development and strategy, a dealmaking seat rather than a product one.
The move caps a year of churn around the division he used to run: Samsung VP Gavin Kim was brought in to lead Windows Phone product management in November 2011, and by July 2012 a Windows Phone director had left for Amazon ahead of its rumored smartphone entry. That the story was picked up same-day by Bloomberg, AllThingsD, Business Insider and the Seattle papers reflects how closely the press tracks who holds the phone reins inside Microsoft.
First-order effects
- Lees takes over corporate development and strategy at Microsoft weeks after the October 26 launch of Windows 8 and Surface RT, putting M&A and strategic planning under an executive with deep mobile-operator and carrier relationships.
- Windows Phone continues under the leadership installed after his removal, while the division simultaneously bankrolls a celebrity-heavy Windows Phone 8 push with Jay-Z and Gwen Stefani.
Second-order effects
- The steady drip of Windows Phone departures — including the director who joined Amazon — hands rivals a recruiting pool of exactly the phone-platform expertise Microsoft needs to keep in-house as it courts hardware partners.
- Placing a former division head in corporate strategy signals that Microsoft's next round of deals will be evaluated partly through a mobile lens, shaping which partnerships and acquisitions get prioritized.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — executives rotated sideways rather than cut loose, and phone talent exiting to Amazon and others — the open question for partners like Samsung and HTC becomes continuity: whether Microsoft's mobile leadership can stay stable long enough for the Windows Phone 8 bet to compound.
The trend: Microsoft is reshuffling its mobile-era executive bench even as it bets the company on Windows 8, with Windows Phone leadership turnover becoming a recurring data point in how the market reads the platform's staying power.