Microsoft, Facebook, Tech Winners & Losers

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Microsoft (MSFT) shares slumped Tuesday following the surprise departure of Steven Sinofsky, who previously served as president of its Windows and Windows Live unit.

Sinofsky, oversaw the recent launch of Windows 8, is being replaced by Julie Larson-Green, who will handle "all Windows software and hardware engineering," and Tami Reller, who will assume responsibility for "the business of Windows."

The stock was losing 3% at $27.14 in recent trades with volume already running above 84 million vs. the issue's trailing three-month daily average churn of 45.3 million.

---

Shares of Facebook (FB) were incrementally lower Tuesday ahead of the expiration of a lock-up period for a massive amount of stock held by company insiders.

Almost 800 million shares are estimated to become available for trading on the open market on Wednesday. This is the second lock-up expiration that Facebook has dealt with since going public in mid-May. The first lock-up was up in August, releasing some 270 million shares.

The stock was down 18 cents, or 0.90%, at $19.89 in afternoon action.

Facebook recently reported stronger-than-expected earnings as the company's mobile initiatives showed promise in generating revenue in the third quarter.

On an a adjusted basis, the social network earned 12 cents a share on revenue of $1.26 billion for the September-ended period. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were looking for 11 cents a share on sales of $1.2 billion.

---

Interested in more on Facebook? See TheStreet Ratings' report card for this stock.

--Written by Chris Ciaccia in New York

>Contact by Email.

Follow @Commodity_Bull