Juniper hires Microsoft veteran as CEO

The little blemish on his resume of failing to pull off Microsoft's bid to aquire Yahoo didn't deter Juniper from naming Microsoft veteran Kevin Johnson as CEO, replacing Scott Kriens who continues as chairman. According to an IDG News Services story, news of Johnson's departure from Microsoft comes just a week after the company released financial earnings dragged down by its online services group. Microsoft will split up the group he ran.

Johnson's group at Microsoft was by far the weakest at the company, according to the IDG News Service story, which cites Rob Helm, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft as noting that Johnson hasn’t managed to improve market share or revenue shortfalls through organic growth or acquisition. Nevertheless, Johnson was tapped by Kriens and Juniper CTO and founder Pradeep Sindhu for his background in engineering and experience in scaling and leading companies through rapid growth, according to the Juniper leaders. Johnson is challenged with leading the Cisco rival through its growth stage beyond $3 billion.

What do you think of Johnson's chances against John Chambers?

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