Rick Belluzzo, Microsoft Corp's president and chief operating officer, has unexpectedly resigned after a little more than a year in the position. The company said it has no plans to replace him.
Belluzzo resigned Wednesday as the software giant announced a restructuring that will give its main business units more responsibility for their fiscal and operational performance -- duties he acknowledged are traditionally a chief operating officer's responsibility.
Analysts said the restructuring would make it easier for Microsoft to split into multiple companies -- something the company was briefly ordered to do during the government's antitrust trial, although it was later overturned. Microsoft said the restructuring had nothing to do with its antitrust trial.
The announcement, made after markets closed, surprised many observers of the Redmond, Washington-based software giant, who felt he was in line to become chief executive. But in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, Belluzzo said the restructuring is important for the company's future growth.
"We needed to really change the orientation of the business to where business owners could not only [control] product development but also how the product goes to market and so on," he said.
Some analysts have questioned Microsoft's long-term growth prospects in recent months, and many praised the move Wednesday.
Rob Enderle, an analyst with Giga Information Group, said Microsoft is likely also hoping to make its units more fiscally responsible at a time when all technology companies -- including Microsoft -- are struggling to make profit targets.
"They're having some difficult budgetary problems," Enderle said. "Revenue's off and clearly they're going to have to do some cost-cutting."
Belluzzo said he realized in about January that the restructuring plans would make his job redundant, and saw that as an opportunity to pursue his long-term goal of being a chief executive at a company.
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