It took two decades for Microsoft to lure Ray Ozzie to Redmond, Washington, and now the man Bill Gates finally landed last year is set to take the reins from him--following the former's announcement
that he will step down as the company's chief software architect. Effective yesterday, Ray Ozzie is the new chief software architect of Microsoft, the man in charge of the weighty behemoth's move into
advertising-based online services. According to Gates, Ozzie is "unparalleled" among software programmers, both for the software he has created and the respect the soft-spoken man commands from those
around him. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer agreed, telling Reuters: "We wanted to work with Ray for about 20-plus years...We expected a lot, but this has worked out a lot better than we had any right to
expect." What, exactly, Ozzie has done in the last year remains unclear: Microsoft's stock is still flat; Vista is continually delayed, MSN still looks dead in the water, and MSN Search is actually
losing market share to runaway leader Google. Meanwhile, the company continues to depend on bundling Windows and Office with hardware PCs to drive most of its revenue. If Microsoft is really shifting
its business model, it still has a lot to do. Luckily, Ozzie is likable--but, as one analyst says: "He's not going to be able to take on all of Bill Gates' role...As the founder, Bill Gates had a kind
of moral authority that no one else can really take on."
Read the whole story at Reuters.com »
