[headline]Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will Retire in the Next Year[/headline]
Microsoft just announced that its CEO, Steve Ballmer, will retire within the next 12 months. He'll remain in his current position until Microsoft finds his replacement.
Ballmer has been with Microsoft since 1980, and has been CEO since 2000. A special committee—which includes chairman Bill Gates—has been formed to find his replacement. Something obvious, but interesting to see laid out explicitly, is that Ballmer and the new CEO will continue to oversee Microsoft's "transformation to a devices and services company," so the new CEO will likely have a background in hardware or services.
Earlier this year Ballmer was part of a failed attempt to purchase the Sacramento Kings and relocate them to Seattle, where Microsoft is located. Ballmer briefly served as head of the Xbox division last month, before former Windows executive Julie Larson-Green was named successor.
In recent years, Ballmer has been a polarizing figure at Microsoft, with many believing he's responsible for the stagnation of Microsoft, and the culture of Microsoft not being able to get out of its own way long enough to enjoy successes that should be a matter of course.
His departure will offer Microsoft a chance to change how its corporate structure works. Ballmer will be the latest key executive to leave the company, following former Xbox chief Don Mattrick and Windows boss Steven Sinofsky.
Ballmer sent out an internal email going over his decision, which Microsoft has posted under the title Moving On. It has the expected optimistic beats regarding the company's future, and reflects the cumulative success of Microsoft over Ballmer's tenure at the company, but seems to lack that central, recent success that will keep Microsoft moving forward. Here is the letter in its entirety:
http://gizmodo.com/microsoft-ceo-steve-ballmer-will-retire-in-the-next-yea-1187983423