Martin Taylor, a top marketing aide to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, has been fired abruptly left the company. Microsoft was notably tight-lipped about Taylor’s departure, which had the effect of opening the door to widespread speculation about what might have gone on behind the scenes. Blogger ArsTechnica, for instance, speculates that Ray Ozzie, who is set to take over the product development duties from Bill Gates over the next two years, might be behind it.
A possible reason for Taylor’s dismissal could be the fact that Ray Ozzie is set to take over Bill Gates’ position in 2008, and he may want to assemble his own team of executives. That would make sense, especially at a time like this when the Live services are in their early stages.
Just when everything looked good in Windows Live land, its head marketing executive departs [ArsTechnica]
Rumor in Seattle is this guy is gone for one simple reason,…sex. No high-level company political intrigue, no falling out with a more senior exec, and no resignation because MSFT mgmt refused to listen to his views about future strategies,…just sex w/ someone at the office and he got caught.
He was very young, very rich, very much married and lived la bon vie. But just maybe he got too much too quickly, lost his perspective, and began to really believe the rules didn’t apply to him.
The degree of sexual offense must have been pretty egregious for MSFT to show him the door. I mean ‘come on,…BillG dated Belinda at MSFT (among others), so theoretically sex between office mates shouldn’t be a big thing, right?
Too bad really, he was a fast rising star. Getting stuck at the Dallas airport must have been one heck of a rude wake up call for Mr. Taylor.
ArsTechnica gets twice as much traffic as Gawker.com. It’s also not a blogger, it’s a tech new site started in 1997.
http://www.alexaholic.com/arstechnica.com+gawker.com