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Ballmer's final shake-up. Steve Ballmer has said he would retire from the company when his last kid goes to college, which means 2017 or so. Today's reorganization is probably his final chance to shape the company in his image -- or at least in a fashion that he thinks is necessary for the future. In a memo to the troops this morning, Ballmer said that the realignment is meant to create "One Microsoft" -- a single company aligned around delivering services and devivces.
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Qi Lu: Applications and services engineering. Qi Lu has led the money-losing Bing and consumer online business since 2007, when he joined the company from leading search and ad tech at Yahoo. He has a big new role, overseeing the technology behind Microsoft business products such as Office 365 and Exchange -- including their critical online components.
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Julie Larson-Green: Devices and Studios Julie Larson-Green is a long-time lieutenant of former Windows chief Steven Sinofsky, and oversaw many of the design elements of Windows 8. She took over running the Windows business after Sinofsky left last October. Now, she'll run Microsoft's hardware businesses, including Xbox, Surface, and whatever the company ends up doing in smartphones. She'll also run Microsoft Studios, the company's game-making and entertainment licensing business.
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Terry Myerson: Windows engineering Terry Myerson has run Windows Phone for the last couple of years, and has managed to turn it into a credilble third alternative to iOS and Android, although it still trails far behind them in terms of market share. He's a Microsoft veteran, and ran Exchange for several years. He'll now run engineering for all versions of Windows, from desktop to server to phone.
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Satya Nadella: Azure and other services Nadella has been running Microsoft's fastest-growing business unit, Server & Tools, since 2011, when longtime veteran Bob Muglia left. Prior to that, he oversaw Bing engineering and tools and services for small businesses. He now runs back-end development and engineering for services, including Microsoft's datacenter, and retains control of the Azure business.
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Tony Bates: M&A and partnerships Tony Bates came to Microsoft through the 2011 acquisition of Skype, where he was CEO. Prior to joining Skype in 2010, he spent most of his career leading Cisco. That history will come in handy in his new role overseeing corporate development -- Cisco has a long history of acquisitions. Bates will also oversee relationships with key partners and developers.
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Tami Reller: Marketing Tami Reller joined the company through its 2001 acquisition of Great Plains, a business accounting software company. She's led Windows marketing for the last year, and now takes over all corporate marketing for the company.
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Eric Rudder: Research Eric Rudder is a longtime Microsoft vet, having served as Bill Gates' technical systems and briefly as the leader of the Server & Tools business. He takes over research, Trustworthy Computing (Microsoft's security and privacy business unit), and other cross-company initiatives
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Who got axed? Along with the execs who are celebrating today, there are plenty who will probably be disappointed as well. Business software leader Kurt DelBene, who led Office through the launch of Office 365, is retiring. Microsoft Research leader Craig Mundie, who led research and other projects, will spend the next year leading an unspecified "special project" for Ballmer, then will retire in 2014. Rick Rashid, who was the head of Microsoft Research, will return to core operating system engineering.
In Pictures: Who's who in the Microsoft shake-up?
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Microsoft has announced its biggest reorganidation in years, and a lot of the new leaders have backgrounds in consumer businesses. Here's who's running the show.
