Microsoft executive exits at a shaky time

Turns out Microsoft Corp.'s radical overhaul of its Windows operating system last month wasn't the only big change in store for the company.

The abrupt departure of Steven Sinofsky, president of Windows and Windows Live, is being called poor timing for the tech behemoth. It's also seen as a sign that longtime Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has no plans to step down anytime soon.

Sinofsky's exit, just weeks after the company rolled out the Windows 8 operating system, "doesn't necessarily reflect well on the company," said Kirk Materne, managing director at Evercore Partners.

"I think if you're Steve, having this happen right after creates a level of distraction that you don't want in the first place," he said. "It's never great when you've had this much turnover at the senior level of a company that is really trying to gain its footing in markets like tablet and mobile."

Shares of Microsoft slid 90 cents, or 3.2%, to $27.09 on Tuesday. Its stock has languished in the last decade — virtually unchanged — while shares of rival Apple Inc. have climbed more than 6,700%.

Microsoft is under pressure to impress consumers and investors with its latest offerings, which include Windows 8 and its new Surface device, a hybrid tablet-laptop that launched last month.

But both products have been met with lackluster interest. Windows 8 debuted to low investor expectations, and reviews for the revamped operating system have been mixed, with some users saying it's at times confusing to use.

The Surface, meanwhile, was buzz-worthy when it was first unveiled, but analysts seem unconvinced that it will make a dent in a market currently dominated by Apple's iPad. Although the hardware is sleek, the Surface lacks applications compared with the iPad, and its highly touted snap-on keyboard that doubles as a cover is difficult to accurately type on, reviewers have said.

The Windows 8 launch was said to be the biggest revamp of the operating system in nearly two decades. The latest update includes a new interface called the Start screen that was designed for tablets and touch-screen computers and features moving tiles similar to those on Windows Phone devices. Microsoft wants the new Start screen interface to be the future of Windows.

"The general conclusion of Win 8 is on the surface, it's a solid first start," Materne said. "It's not mind-blowing, it's not going to immediately recapture market share, but it gets them back in the ballgame to a certain degree."

Sinofsky, a 23-year Microsoft veteran, was in charge of the Windows 8 and Surface efforts at the Redmond, Wash., company. He was a polarizing figure in the office with a tough management style and was rumored to be in line to succeed Ballmer, who has been chief executive since 2000.

In an employee memo Monday, the day Microsoft announced his departure, Sinofsky said he had decided to leave to seek "new opportunities."

"With the general availability of Windows 8/RT and Surface, I have decided it is time for me to take a step back from my responsibilities at Microsoft," he said. "I've always advocated using the break between product cycles as an opportunity to reflect and to look ahead, and that applies to me too."

Now that Sinofsky has left, analysts — some of whom speculated there had been a rift between Sinofsky and Ballmer — say they expect a new direction for the Windows division.

"Sinofsky was a highly talented operator who hit product release dates, got delivery in Windows to be more reliable, and was pivotal to successful Office and Win 7 releases," Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Holt said in a note to investors. "While he is a loss for Microsoft, Windows has entered a different phase where cultivation of developers, collaboration between product groups, integration with the mobile operating system and a focus on applications become more important."

Sinofsky will be replaced by Julie Larson-Green, who has been with the company since 1993 and oversaw program management, user interface design and research for Windows 7 and 8. She will lead all Windows software and hardware engineering.

Tami Reller, Windows chief financial officer and chief marketing officer, also will assume responsibility for the business of Windows.

There could be a bit of a learning curve in the meantime, said equity analyst Angelo Zino of S&P Capital IQ.

"We are surprised by the announcement, given Sinofsky's recent success as well as a belief by many that he could eventually have been the successor to CEO Steve Ballmer," he said. "While we are confident in the abilities of both individuals, we see the change increasing product development risk to future Windows releases."

andrea.chang@latimes.com

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Father of 3 killed in West Rogers Park hit-and-run

Chicago police are looking for a driver who struck and killed an employee with the Cook County Clerk's Office and injured another man in West Rogers Park.

Tsering Dorjee had spent the day Monday helping his brother-in-law find an apartment for his family, due here from India next month.

As it turned evening, Dorjee and Dakpa Jorden went to get food and were crossing the street in the 6400 block of North Maplewood Avenue around 6 p.m. when they were struck by a dark blue Volkswagen that kept on driving, police said.

Dorjee, 44 and the father of three small children, was taken to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston, where he was pronounced dead at 10:27 p.m. from head injuries, according to the medical examiner's office.

Jorden suffered a broken leg and was taken to the same hospital.

“I don’t know what to do," Dorjee's wife, Kalsang Wangmo. "I don’t know what to do now.’’

"My boys are asking, 'Where’s daddy? Where's daddy?' " she said. They are 6, 3 and 1.

Wangmo said she started getting worried when her husband wasn’t home by 7 p.m.  "Normally he comes home before 6:30 p.m," she said.

Wangmo said she called his cell phone several times but got no answer. Finally, the hospital called her at 8 p.m. "They said, ‘Your husband is in critical condition, can you come now,' " Wangmo said, her voice choking with emotion.
 
She frantically called a relative to watch her boys and got to the hospital before he died. "His eyes were all swollen," Wangmo said, and he could not talk.

As she sat by her husband side, Wangmo said she thought of their children and how she would face life without him. “I don’t know, I don’t know…I have three children,’’ she said, sobbing.

She said her husband had the day off Monday and was helping her brother find an apartment. He has been living with them, and the rest of his family was coming from India to live in Chicago next month.

Dorjee worked in the Cook County Clerk's office and was the president of the Rogers Park Chamber of Commerce.

Wangmo said she and her husband are both from India and went to same high school there. She is from Bangalore, in the Indian state of Karnataka, and her husband was from Himachal in northern India.

While living in India, Dorjee worked for the Tibetan government in exile, according to Lhakpa Tsering, president of the Tibetan Alliance of Chicago.  His parents had been born in Tibet.

"It’s very distressing and very disappointing because, in our community, we have very few deaths but they are natural – sickness or old age," Tsering said. "This is the first time a hit-and-run has taken a life in our community.’’

Dorjee had felt strongly about helping other Tibetans. "He is a Tibetan himself and he believes it is very important to help the community," Tsering said. “We feel loss because our community is small -- less than 300 people in Chicago."

Tsering said the Tibetan Alliance of Chicago is planning a prayer ceremony and special gathering to honor him. “He was very active in the Tibetan community because the situation in Tibet is critical,’’ Tsering said. “He really thinks the issues are important.’’

Reuters reported last week that 68 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since March 2011 in protest against Chinese rule over Tibetan regions. At least 56 have died, according to Tibetan rights groups.

Cook County Clerk David Orr released a statement saying Dorjee "was a much-loved member of my Vital Records staff since 1998. Tsering was an incredibly kind soul and dedicated public servant. News of his death this morning brought his coworkers to tears. Our deepest condolences go to his wife, children and family. He will be dearly missed."

The car was described as a dark blue Volkswagen Beetle with the Illinois license plate P121817. Police asked anyone with information to call 312-745-4521.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com

Twitter: @chicagobreaking

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Microsoft's Windows head, once a possible CEO, exits

SEATTLE (Reuters) - The executive most widely tipped to be the next chief executive of Microsoft Corp has left the world's largest software maker barely two weeks after launching the flagship Windows 8, as CEO Steve Ballmer moved to tighten his grip on the company.

The exit of 23-year veteran Steven Sinofsky, head of Microsoft's Windows unit, is the latest - and most prominent - in a line of high-profile departures from the Redmond, Washington-based company, which is struggling to keep pace with Apple Inc and Google Inc in mobile computing.

It comes hard on the heels of Sinofsky unveiling the most radical revamp of Windows since 1995, designed to catapult Microsoft back into the forefront of Internet-based, touch-screen technology and reinvigorate a stock price that has been static for the past decade.

The move was unexpected and neither Microsoft nor Sinofsky gave an explanation, although an executive at the company, who asked not to be named, said the decision was "mutual" and said he was not expecting Sinofsky to take a job at another company soon.

"This is shocking news. This is very surprising," said Brendan Barnicle, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities. "Like a lot of people, I thought Sinofsky was in line to potentially be Ballmer's successor."

Sinofsky, 47, joined Microsoft in 1989 and made his mark as Bill Gates' technical assistant. He grew into an uncompromising leader whose ruthless style of cutting layers of management and formalizing the process of software development gave rise to the term "Sinofskyization" in the company.

He wielded immense power as head of the Windows unit, the traditional center of Microsoft's business, but was not known for working well with other executives.

One former Microsoft staffer who worked with Sinofsky and other executives said his relentlessly aggressive style exasperated other leaders and may have alienated too many people, including his mentor Gates.

"He had no one left to fight for him," said the staffer, who asked not to be named. "Gates gave him cover, so he must have eventually caved."

LEADERSHIP STYLE

Ballmer, 56, shows no sign of leaving after almost 13 years in the job, despite almost constant criticism. He has now replaced all the leaders of Microsoft's five main operating units in the past four years.

He told employees in a memo on Monday simply that: "Steven Sinofsky has decided to leave the company."

In a later media statement, he added that it was "imperative that we continue to drive alignment across all Microsoft teams, and have more integrated and rapid development cycles for our offerings".

That could be interpreted as disappointment in Sinofsky's ability, or willingness, to work with other units.

"Windows has to be much more thoroughly integrated with Xbox, with other parts of the company," said Barnicle. "I don't know that was something Steven was as excited about as focusing on Windows."

It could also suggest that Ballmer was not happy with the pace of progress under Sinofsky.

"Within Microsoft's lead cycle, Sinofsky was delivering at the early edge of it," said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Financial. "But now the competition has moved from a one-year cycle to a six-months cycle."

Sinofsky had a stellar career at Microsoft, overhauling the hugely profitable Office division before going over to manage the release of Windows 7 in 2009.

That was regarded as a success and Sinofsky was then tasked with overseeing Windows 8, Microsoft's new-look, touch-friendly operating system designed to bridge the gap with mobile computing leaders Apple and Google.

At the same time, Sinofsky led the development of Microsoft's Surface tablet, its first own-brand computer, aimed at tackling Apple's wildly successful iPad head on.

Analysts said it may be too early to judge whether Windows 8 and the Surface have been a success, after launching on October 26, but Sinofsky's departure could have been tied to his abrasive management and ambition for the top job.

"It sounded like it had more to do with his leadership style," said Barnicle at Pacific Crest. "There wasn't really a next move for Steven at this point."

Sinofsky forfeited some of his bonus this year due to falling sales of Windows and Microsoft's embarrassing failure to comply with an agreement with European regulators to allow users a choice of browsers, which could cost the company millions of dollars in fines.

Sinofsky himself shed no light on his exit.

"It is impossible to count the blessings I have received over my years at Microsoft," he said in a statement. "I am humbled by the professionalism and generosity of everyone I have had the good fortune to work with at this awesome company."

He did not announce any plans to take a job elsewhere.

Sinofsky will be succeeded by Julie Larson-Green, who will head the Windows hardware and software division, and Tami Reller, who will remain chief financial officer of the Windows unit. Together, they will report directly to Ballmer.

Sinofsky's departure comes two weeks after rival Apple shook up its own top management, forcing out mobile head Scott Forstall and retail chief John Browett.

One analyst cited talk that the moves might be related.

"Some are speculating that the availability on the market of Forstall might have something to do with Sinofsky's departure," said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi. "I doubt we will have to wait long to know if this is the case."

(Additional reporting by Sakthi Prasad, Nicola Leske and Sarah McBride; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

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Roethlisberger has sprained shoulder

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has a sprained right shoulder and his status for Sunday's showdown with AFC North rival Baltimore is uncertain.

Coach Mike Tomlin said Tuesday that Roethlisberger is "questionable" and is waiting for more details on the quarterback's condition. Roethlisberger left Monday night's 16-13 overtime win over Kansas City in the third quarter after getting slammed to the ground by Chiefs linebackers Tamba Hali and Justin Houston.

Veteran backup Byron Leftwich filled in and completed 7 of 14 passes for 73 yards. Leftwich's last start came in 2009 while playing for the Atlanta Falcons.

Tomlin said safety Troy Polamalu remains doubtful with a right calf injury. Polamalu hasn't played since a win over Philadelphia on Oct. 7.

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Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

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Jason Biggs defends tweeting ways

NEW YORK (AP) — Jason Biggs is brushing off criticism he received during the recent election season for vulgar tweets that referenced the wives of both Republican Mitt Romney and his running mate in the presidential race, Paul Ryan.

The “American Pie” star took heat for off-color comments posted to his Twitter feed at the time of the Republican National Convention in August. The outpouring of criticism from parents groups, pundits and others led Nickelodeon to issue an apology for the actor’s comments on the social media website. Biggs is providing one of the voices in the cable TV station’s new animated series “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

“I made a political tweet, so I got a little bit of heat from the right,” he said.

With elections over, Biggs says he’s moving on.

He appeared Monday night in New York at the annual 24 Hour Plays event, which was sponsored by luxury pen-maker Montblanc to benefit the Urban Arts Partnership. The benefit draws more than two dozen actors who write, rehearse, and perform one of six plays that they began working on the night before.

Biggs’ tweets have also poked fun at the Kardashians, Amanda Bynes, Lindsay Lohan and the ABC show “The Bachelorette.”

“I’m more afraid of the Kardashians, than I am of the Republicans,” he said.

He said he sees Twitter as an extension of the darker side of his humor.

As a three-time performer in 24 Hour Plays benefit, Biggs says he’s grown to feel more comfortable with the process.

“It’s a little easier. But it’s still nerve-racking, man.”

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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British medical journal slams Roche on Tamiflu

LONDON (AP) — A leading British medical journal is asking the drug maker Roche to release all its data on Tamiflu, claiming there is no evidence the drug can actually stop the flu.

The drug has been stockpiled by dozens of governments worldwide in case of a global flu outbreak and was widely used during the 2009 swine flu pandemic.

On Monday, one of the researchers linked to the BMJ journal called for European governments to sue Roche.

"I suggest we boycott Roche's products until they publish missing Tamiflu data," wrote Peter Gotzsche, leader of the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen. He said governments should take legal action against Roche to get the money back that was "needlessly" spent on stockpiling Tamiflu.

Last year, Tamiflu was included in a list of "essential medicines" by the World Health Organization, a list that often prompts governments or donor agencies to buy the drug.

Tamiflu is used to treat both seasonal flu and new flu viruses like bird flu or swine flu. WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said the agency had enough proof to warrant its use for unusual influenza viruses, like bird flu.

"We do have substantive evidence it can stop or hinder progression to severe disease like pneumonia," he said.

In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends Tamiflu as one of two medications for treating regular flu. The other is GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza. The CDC says such antivirals can shorten the duration of symptoms and reduce the risk of complications and hospitalization.

In 2009, the BMJ and researchers at the Nordic Cochrane Centre asked Roche to make all its Tamiflu data available. At the time, Cochrane Centre scientists were commissioned by Britain to evaluate flu drugs. They found no proof that Tamiflu reduced the number of complications in people with influenza.

"Despite a public promise to release (internal company reports) for each (Tamiflu) trial...Roche has stonewalled," BMJ editor Fiona Godlee wrote in an editorial last month.

In a statement, Roche said it had complied with all legal requirements on publishing data and provided Gotzsche and his colleagues with 3,200 pages of information to answer their questions.

"Roche has made full clinical study data ... available to national health authorities according to their various requirements, so they can conduct their own analyses," the company said.

Roche says it doesn't usually release patient-level data available due to legal or confidentiality constraints. It said it did not provide the requested data to the scientists because they refused to sign a confidentiality agreement.

Roche is also being investigated by the European Medicines Agency for not properly reporting side effects, including possible deaths, for 19 drugs including Tamiflu that were used in about 80,000 patients in the U.S.

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Online:

www.bmj.com.tamiflu/

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Day-Lewis heeded inner ear to find Lincoln's voice

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A towering figure such as Abraham Lincoln, who stood 6 feet 4 and was one of history's master orators, must have had a booming voice to match, right? Not in Daniel Day-Lewis' interpretation.

Day-Lewis, who plays the 16th president in Steven Spielberg's epic film biography "Lincoln," which goes into wide release this weekend, settled on a higher, softer voice, saying it's more true to descriptions of how the man actually spoke.

"There are numerous accounts, contemporary accounts, of his speaking voice. They tend to imply that it was fairly high, in a high register, which I believe allowed him to reach greater numbers of people when he was speaking publicly," Day-Lewis said in an interview. "Because the higher registers tend to reach farther than the lower tones, so that would have been useful to him."

"Lincoln" is just the fifth film in the last 15 years for Day-Lewis, a two-time Academy Award winner for best actor ("My Left Foot" and "There Will Be Blood"). Much of his pickiness stems from a need to understand characters intimately enough to feel that he's actually living out their experiences.

The soft, reedy voice of his Lincoln grew out of that preparation.

"I don't separate vocal work, and I don't dismember a character into its component parts and then kind of bolt it all together, and off you go," Day-Lewis said. "I tend to try and allow things to happen slowly, over a long period of time. As I feel I'm growing into a sense of that life, if I'm lucky, I begin to hear a voice.

"And I don't mean in a supernatural sense. I begin to hear the sound of a voice, and if I like the sound of that, I live with that for a while in my mind's ear, whatever one might call it, my inner ear, and then I set about trying to reproduce that."

Lincoln himself likely learned to use his voice to his advantage depending on the situation, Day-Lewis said.

"He was a supreme politician. I've no doubt in my mind that when you think of all the influences in his life, from his childhood in Kentucky and Indiana and a good part of his younger life in southern Illinois, that the sounds of all those regions would have come together in him somehow.

"And I feel that he probably learned how to play with his voice in public and use it in certain ways in certain places and in certain other ways in other places. Especially in the manner in which he expressed himself. I think, I've no doubt that he was conscious enough of his image."

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Chicago's top employers named

The Chicago Tribune released its annual Top Workplaces survey Monday, with a broad cross section of companies -- and dozens of new names -- earning recognition as the best places to work in Chicago. 

Abt Electronics and Coyote Logistics repeated as the top large and midsize employers, respectively, with iD Commerce + Logistics making the list for the first time as the top-ranked small company.  

This is the third year the Tribune has partnered with Workplace Dynamics to rank the top 100 companies as judged by their own employees, using criteria ranging from clued-in managers to flexible work schedules. More than 1,600 companies were invited to participate, with a record 254 completing the survey.

Pennsylvania-based Workplace Dynamics partnered with 32 newspapers and surveyed 1.5 million employees nationwide last year as part of its research efforts into what environments are best for employees. 

"We all spend an awful lot of time at work," said Doug Claffey, CEO of Workplace Dynamics. "Creating a really great workplace for employees is something that I think businesses have an obligation to do.  In addition to making money, you need create an environment where your people want to be."

Beyond Glenview electronics retailer Abt,  the top five large companies were Hyatt Hotels, Baird & Warner, ATI Physical Therapy and FedEx -- all new to this category this year.

Chicago-based Coyote Logistics was followed by kCura, Slalom Consulting, Edward Jones and Mercy Home for Boys & Girls among companies with 250 to 999 employees.  

Wood Dale-based id Commerce topped Webster Dental, 2011 winner Red Frog Events, Assurance Agency and LeasePlan USA among small companies.

Full survey results and a variety of top workplace profiles will be published in a magazine insert included in Tuesday's Chicago Tribune.

rchannick@tribune.com | Twitter @RobertChannick

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Cutler skipping radio show, awaits evaluations after concussion

Brad Biggs and David Haugh recap Sunday's Chicago Bears game against the Houston Texans.

By Fred Mitchell, Tribune reporter

12:59 p.m. CST, November 12, 2012

Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler didn't do his weekly radio show Monday after suffering a concussion late in the first half of Sunday night's 13-6 loss to the Houston Texans.

The "Jay Cutler Show," which had been scheduled to be broadcast live from the Joe's on Weed restaurant at noon as part of the "Waddle & Silvy Show" on WMVP-AM 1000, was canceled, the station said.

Cutler's availability for next Monday night's game in San Francisco also is in question. Backup quarterback Jason Campbell played the second half against the Texans. Cutler will need to be cleared by team doctors as well as an independent neurological consultant before he is cleared to return to the field.

Coach Lovie Smith declined Monday to speculate on Cutler's outlook for the 49ers game. He confirmed that the team believes Cutler was injured on the hit by Houston's Tim Dobbins.

Asked about the performance of Campbell, Smith said, "None of us played well enough to win."

Meanwhile, an NFL spokesman said the league has found no fault with how the Bears handled Cutler's concussion Sunday night.

"Our medical advisors follow up on any significant injury," the NFL's Greg Aiello wrote in an email. "On this one, we learned that the team properly handled the injury and removed him from the game as soon as he showed symptoms and was diagnosed with a concussion."

Cutler missed one game when he suffered a concussion in 2010, and the concussion protocol remains the same. It's something 49ers quarterback Alex Smith also will have to go through this week as he was knocked out of Sunday's tie against the Rams with a concussion.

NFL protocol mandates players be completely asymptomatic and have normal neurological results at rest and after physical exertion before returning. That means Cutler will be evaluated after running or doing other non-football exercises.

Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III suffered a concussion earlier this season and returned to play the following week. Lions running back Jahvid Best has missed more than a year after suffering two concussions last season. This is the third concussion Cutler has suffered in the NFL, including one with the Broncos, and he had at least one documented concussion at Vanderbilt.

Contributing: Brad Biggs

fmitchell@tribune.com

Twitter@kicker34

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Microsoft's Surface tablet has "modest" start: Ballmer

PARIS (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp's new Surface tablet - its challenger to Apple's iPad - had a "modest" start to sales because of limited availability, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told French daily Le Parisien.

The world's largest software company put the Surface tablet center stage at its Windows 8 launch event last month in its fightback against Apple and Google in the exploding mobile computing market.

"We've had a modest start because Surface is only available on our online retail sites and a few Microsoft stores in the United States," Ballmer was quoted as saying.

The new device, which runs a limited version of Windows and Office with a thin, click-on keyboard cover, is being positioned by Microsoft as the ideal combination of PC and tablet that is good for work as well as entertainment.

Ballmer also said 4 million upgrades to Windows 8 were sold in the three days following the system's launch.

ECONOMIC CRISIS

Asked what he thought of the re-election of U.S. President Barack Obama, Ballmer told the newspaper the $242.7 billion company would work with the president and with governments around the world on issues like data privacy, immigration of qualified engineers and patent litigation.

The launch of Windows 8 has already raised the hackles of European Union regulators, who warned Microsoft not to repeat the mistake of denying consumers a choice of rival Web browsers in its new operating system, in a dispute that has already cost the software giant more than $1.3 billion in fines.

Commenting on the outlook for the U.S. economy, Ballmer exhorted politicians to take action on the deficit, though he stopped short of saying whether more emphasis should be placed on spending cutbacks or tax increases.

"It's not about spending more or less, it's about balancing spending and income...The elections are over, it's time to get back to work," Ballmer, who took over the day-to-day running of Microsoft from its billionaire co-founder Bill Gates just over a decade ago.

(Reporting by Lionel Laurent; Editing by David Cowell)

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