After 26 years with the company, Jeff Raikes has announced he's leaving the his position as co-president at Microsoft (MSFT). He will stay on with the company until September 2008.
Raikes, 49, will continue helping with strategy until he leaves. He currently runs the business division, and was largely responsible for growing the office applications, which include the ubiquitous Word and Excel programs.
Microsoft has already hired his replacement, Stephen Elop, who was the COO of Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR), which makes networking equipment. He will come to Microsoft at the end of January 2008 and assume the duties of heading the business division.
Elop used to be CEO and and head of operations at Macromedia. After being bought out by Adobe (ADBE), he was president of world-wide field operations for the company.
Three executives at Microsoft have the president title, and it seems they are being allowed to run and perform in anticipation of replacing current CEO Steve Ballmer. A number of companies run succession strategies that way.
As far as Raikes goes, some were surprised at his decision, as he was considered one of the lead candidates to replace Ballmer as CEO. Still at only 49 years of age, and owning 5,422,313 shares of stock in the company, he'll get a very healthy amount when and if he chooses to sell.
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