Former Nokia chief leaving Microsoft

Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella continues to put his stamp on the company, announcing Wednesday an executive shuffle that involves the departure of former NokiaCorp. chief Stephen Elop, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Mr. Elop was the biggest surprise departure in the shake-up. Two other Microsoft executives, Kirill Tatarinov and Eric Rudder, will, like Mr. Elop “leave Microsoft after a designated transition period,” the company said in a news release. Mark Penn, who served as a senior strategist, is leaving as well; Microsoft said his departure is unrelated to the others.

The departure of Mr. Elop along with one of his closest deputies, Jo Harlow, is the latest sign Microsoft is hitting the reset button on its struggling smartphone hardware business.

The more than $9 billion purchase of Nokia’s handset business—a deal struck by Mr. Nadella’s predecessor, Steve Ballmer, in late 2013—was supposed to make Microsoft a relevant player in smartphones.

Microsoft declined to make Mr. Elop available for an interview.

Instead, under Mr. Elop’s leadership at Microsoft, the company’s Windows smartphones lost market share and bled red ink. The company recently said it planned to further cut costs at the smartphone business and other hardware units. Nokia already was targeted for thousands of job cuts in the biggest layoffs in Microsoft’s history, announced last year.