CEO Steve Ballmer sent out emails yesterday telling Microsoft employees that long standing Chief software architect Ray Ozzie is stepping down from his position and leaving the company after a transition period.

The email which was published later as a press release said that Ozzie wouldn't leave right away but did state that he ‘will be onboard for a while” and “following the natural transition time with his teams but before he retires from Microsoft, Ray will be focusing his efforts in the broader area of entertainment where Microsoft has many ongoing investments. While he'll continue to report to me during the transition, the CSA role was unique and I won't refill the role after Ray's departure.” Ballmer ended by saying “We have a strong planning process, strong technical leaders in each business group and strong innovation heading to the market.”

Ozzie first joined Microsoft in 2005 when the software behemoth bought his company Groove Networks. In 2006, after Bill Gates announced his stepping down from day to day activities Ozzie took over his position as Chief Software Architecture while Ballmer took over Gate's other role as CEO.

Ballmer has been vocal in giving his support to Ozzie saying he helped considerably with Microsoft's Azure and Cloud platform. His last creation was FUSE labs, a group looking at social computing.

KitGuru says: It will be business as usual for Microsoft.

Become a Patron!