Xbox is detracting from Microsoft's business focus, says co-founder's business partner

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has said he is both “intrigued and interested” by incoming changes at the company, amid its search for a new CEO. His investment partner has revealed that Allen feels Xbox and Bing detract from the core business, following rumours that former Nokia boss Stephen Elop is prepared to trim some fat.

It follows word that - if brought in as Steve Ballmer's replacement as CEO - Elop would be prepared to cut the Xbox brand free if it either becomes unsuccessful or mis-aligned with the company's focus.

Speaking with the Financial Times, Allen's investment partner Paul Ghaffari, said that Allen shared Elop's rumoured view. It has been suggested that Elop would want to focus on Microsoft's core products, such as Office on non-Microsoft devices and other integral parts of the company.

Ghaffari told the paper, "The search business and even Xbox, which has been a very successful product, are detracting from that. We would want them to focus on their best competencies. My view is there are some parts of that operation they should probably spin out, get rid of, to focus on the enterprise and focus on the cloud.”

Can you see Microsoft doing this? It is at all feasible? Let us know what you think below.

Via MCV.