Executive Leaves Microsoft for Startup -- WSJ
July 08 2020 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Dave Sebastian
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (July 8, 2020).
Augmented-reality headset maker Magic Leap Inc. named Peggy
Johnson, a top Microsoft Corp. official, as its new chief executive
officer, as the company tries to shift its focus from the consumer
market to enterprise customers.
Ms. Johnson served as executive vice president of business
development at Microsoft, a role in which she was the Redmond,
Wash., company's top deal maker, managed relationships with
external partners and had oversight of the M12 corporate venture
fund.
She will succeed Magic Leap founder Rony Abovitz in the role
Aug. 1. Mr. Abovitz, who in May said he was stepping down, will
remain CEO during the transition period.
Ms. Johnson joined Microsoft in 2014 and was one of three women
on the company's senior leadership, according to Microsoft's
website. Microsoft said Ms. Johnson's last day at the company was
Tuesday. Major acquisitions during her tenure include the roughly
$26 billion purchase of LinkedIn Corp. in 2016 and $7.5 billion
purchase of GitHub Inc. in 2018.
Before joining Microsoft, Ms. Johnson was at Qualcomm Inc. for
24 years, holding leadership positions spanning engineering, sales,
marketing and business development.
Mr. Abovitz founded Magic Leap in 2011 and the Florida-based
company has struggled in recent years to obtain wide adoption for
its flagship headset product.
In April, Mr. Abovitz said the company laid off a number of its
staff as it aimed to cut costs amid the Covid-19 pandemic. He said
he stepped down to let a new chief executive lead the company's
shift to targeting business-related customers.
The spatial-computing startup has raised $3.48 billion in
funding, including $350 million this year, according to PitchBook
data. The company was valued at about $6.69 billion as of April
2019, the data show. Its investors include Alphabet Inc.'s venture
arm GV, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Qualcomm Ventures.
Augmented reality, or AR, has transitioned during the pandemic
from intriguing experiment to an everyday tool across various
industries. Employees who aren't able to travel due to
coronavirus-related restrictions have used the technology, which
imposes digital images onto views of the real world, to instruct
each other in the production process without standing
shoulder-to-shoulder.
Companies have struggled to develop AR products for the consumer
market for reasons ranging from cost to ease of use. Microsoft,
which sells its breakthrough HoloLens headset, pivoted its
technology to focus on enterprise applications.
Write to Dave Sebastian at dave.sebastian@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 08, 2020 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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