Former Windows Boss Steven Sinofsky Becomes A VC For Andreessen Horowitz

Sinofsky has been advising Andreessen Horowitz all year long says Swisher. This just makes the relationship more formal.

Sinofsky was a long-time Microsoft exec. He gets the bulk of the credit for building Windows 7, which was crucial for Microsoft. The previous version of Windows, Vista, was a total flop. He came in and fixed the problems with Vista and shipped Windows 7 on time.

Most recently, he led the development of Windows 8, which has not gone so well. The operating system is a radical change and consumers are not exactly flocking to it.

The reasons for Sinofsky's departure from Microsoft remain murky. There are reports that CEO Steve Ballmer wanted to remove Sinofsky because he thought Sinofsky was not a team player.