Microsoft's internet chief skips town

Perhaps no one should be surprised that the head of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)'s internet unit left the company. Its bid for Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) did not exactly work out well. Redmond will probably not have a big online empire to run without the buyout of the portal company.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "Kevin Johnson, 47 years old, will take a job as chief executive of Juniper Networks (NASDAQ: JNPR), a Silicon Valley maker of networking hardware." The new position sounds like a pretty large step down.

As part of the effect of the departure, Microsoft will separate its Windows group from its online operation.

At this point, who would want to run the Microsoft internet division? It now stands as a distant third in the search business. It competes with Yahoo! and AOL in the portal segment. Display advertising growth rates are slowing.

Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer may say otherwise, but his company has lost the online war. There is nothing left that he can do about that. Spending billions of dollars has yet to gain his company any ground. No executive with a brain is going to want the chance to run a fading business.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.