SEATTLE: 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.