back to article Microsoft fires CIO for 'violation' of policy

Microsoft has fired its chief information officer (CIO) barely two years after he was appointed to the post. Stuart Scott was cut loose following an investigation into a "violation of company policies". Microsoft is not saying anything more on the matter. Scott joined Microsoft in July 2005, reporting to chief operating …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Steven Knox
    Coat

    violation of policy?

    Perhaps he refused to use Vista?

  2. David Dever
    Gates Horns

    Inner workings

    ...wouldn't have to do with the Computerworld article in which he defends the use of SAP and Siebel CRM in-house at MS, now, would it?!?

  3. Shadow Systems
    Happy

    They probably caught him using a GMail account. =)P

    Either that, or a Google search, or checking his Yahoo email, or...

    (Amused cough)

  4. Barry

    Violation of policy, AKA...

    ...he probably shagged the wrong person.

    The IT Angle on that would be horizontal, of course.

  5. Giles Jones Gold badge

    Internal systems

    It is well known that Microsoft doesn't eat its own dog food. They used to produce all their own internal software for their day to day running, but found that it was cheaper and easier to buy software for these tasks (what does that tell you about their products?).

    You seriously think for one minute that they store the Windows source code in SourceSafe? of course not, Perforce is the tool of choice here.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Email retention/autodestruct policy?

    Wasn't there an MS policy on retention of email? Something like it had to be deleted within 3 days (maybe a teensy bit more but not much). Presumably they can't afford the storage space, 'cos it couldn't possibly be because they got scared that the next round of toothless anti-trust investigators might actually find undeniable evidence of a smoking gun sometime, right?

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/11/ms_legal_mail_autodestruct/

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    re: violation of policy?

    "Perhaps he refused to use Vista?"

    I was going to say he was caught smuggling a MacBook in to use as an office machine... ;-)

  8. Kenny Millar

    I heard he was ...

    ... found using an iPod.

  9. This post has been deleted by its author

  10. Steven Walker

    violation of policy?

    More likely he did use Vista. Surely no serious company permits its staff to use it.

  11. Neil

    Violation of policy?

    You mean he installed Linux on a work PC?

    <Waits to see how many other people said the same thing>

  12. Steve B

    I'm available..

    Due to restructuring and not violation of policy, I find myself unexpectedly conveniently available. Of course I would have to commute from South Dorset - using public transport.

    Come to think of it that may go against me.

  13. Gulfie
    Pirate

    Maybe he owns a Mac

    I hear that MS employees have been told that anyone running Windows on a Mac will be disciplined... maybe that was the problem...

  14. Robert Lee
    Alert

    Violate what ?

    Bill : We MUST sell more Vista even though no one like to use it, its slow, buggy and most difficult to use

    CIO : I disagree, if Vista is crap, we should extend XP for another 10 years and keep updating it until Vista is ready

    Bill : You are fired !!!!

    ps, I installed Office 2007 on a new workstation yesterday, and boy, it took me a while just to find where the PRINT icon or File/Print is, is this progress ? the bars were full of colorful icons, but all I really wanted is the print option.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Perhaps...

    ...he was honest???

  16. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    Worse than that,

    Maybe he was caught actually SAYING that he didn't use Vista.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No tech angle...

    He just lost interest in the baby-eating and puppy-stomping. That, or he ran out of bullshit and inadvertently released actual information - not the role of a CIO!

  18. Curtis W. Rendon
    Joke

    Or (horrors) FreeBSD

    smilie included to make comment poster happy ;-)

  19. Robert Moore
    Coat

    Linux

    I heard from a reliable source that they found a linux box in his house.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    @Linux

    no no no, he was caught checking his gmail while he had his laptop booted of a ubuntu live cd

  21. Brian Miller

    Linux at Microsoft

    Actually, there's a lot of Linux that is supported at Microsoft. Yes, believe it or not, Linux is an actual test platform for some of the products.

    What did he do? If Microsoft isn't saying and he isn't saying, there's no way to know. Anyways, it wasn't for open source or using a Mac or anything like that.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    It's worse than that...

    ... he released a software product that didn't have bugs, was fast and efficient instead of bloated and slow, and actually worked really quite well.

    Inconceivable!

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    violation of policy?

    group policy of course!

    /hat/coat/scarf/gloves

This topic is closed for new posts.