Prospective new Microsoft boss Elop tipped to sell off Xbox business

Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop is being tipped to replace outgoing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

But the bigger news for gaming is that Elop is apparently considering selling the Xbox business if he is appointed.

Bloomberg says the claims come from three people with knowledge [of Elop’s] analysis of the business”.

Elop left Nokia in September, having sold the company to Microsoft for $7.2bn.

As well as radically changing the way Microsoft sells its Office software, the site reports that he would be prepared to sell or shut down major businesses to sharpen the company’s focus”.

This would include terminating Google-rival Bing and selling Xbox if he determined it wasn’t critical to the company’s strategy”.