Back in November of last year, Microsoft announced that its Windows and Windows Live President, Steven Sinofsky, would be leaving the company. Sinofsky was at the helm of Office products and lead the teams on the development of Windows 7 and 8 products. To say he had a pretty big role at Microsoft would be an understatement. In December, Sinofsky announced that he would be returning to Harvard Business School for a teaching position in the spring of 2013. Sinofsky, a 23-year vet at Redmond, no doubt has a lot to teach students at Harvard Business School, but will he stay? According to his Twitter profile, he's currently on sabbatical, and recent reports suggest Sinofsky's options for employment will open up considerably come December.
Mashable points to an SEC filing from Microsoft that lists the seven companies named in Sinofsky's non-compete agreement. According to the filing, under the terms of his departure, Sinofsky is not allowed to accept 'direct or indirect employment' with Amazon, Apple, EMC, Google, Facebook, Oracle, or VMware.
Not exactly surprising that Microsoft would want to prevent a former employee that spent nearly a quarter century at the company from working for the competition. More interesting, though, is what Sinofsky will do once the non-compete expires. According to the filing, that will happen on December 31 of this year. Where will Sinofsky be in 2014?