<div>The charismatic Stephen Elop of "burning platform" fame has been quite the headline-maker over the past few years. He was once a VP at Microsoft but took over Nokia when it was in deep trouble and informed everyone there that they were standing on a burning platform and could either jump into the unknown or stay and well, sizzle with the platform.</div><div> </div><div>Nokia was split up and later acquired by Microsoft, whereupon Elop took over as executive vice president of Devices and Services there.</div><div> </div><div>It looked for all the world as if his move from and back to Microsoft had been premediated.</div><div> </div><div>Now, with Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s new CEO taking the tech giant aggressively into the post-PC mobile era, there is to be a merging of Microsoft’s Windows and Devices groups.</div><div> </div><div>Many will remember images of Stephen Elop holding the 41-megapixel phone, Nokia Lumia 1020, at its launch event. But the Lumias subsequently didn't do well enough and the breakthrough 1020 was so much a phone strapped on to a camera that it remained a niche product.</div><div> </div><div>Even after Microsoft bought Nokia, Windows Phone stayed at the low end of the food chain. Interestingly, Elop profited financially from having overseen the transition of Nokia to Microsoft.</div><div> </div><div>There are two other Microsoft executives who will be leaving and Devices and Windows isn’t the only bit of restructuring taking place under Nadella currently.</div><div> </div><div>Nothing is yet known of where Elop is headed when he leaves Microsoft after a transition period, but there’s much lighthearted conjecture on whether he will be scouting for another company to buy for Microsoft: in effect another burning platform.</div>
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