Bill Gates’s successor at Microsoft to retire

(Reuters) – The Microsoft Corp executive who took over the role of chief software architect from Bill Gates is to step down, following a tenure in which the Windows-maker lost ground to Google and Apple.
Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said Ray Ozzie would not be replaced, raising questions about the leadership and direction of the world's largest software company after a string of high-profile departures.
Ozzie, who spearheaded Microsoft's move toward providing software and computing power over the Internet — known as "cloud computing" — had achieved what he set out to do, one person close to the executive said, although others questioned whether he had had ever had much impact.
"Ozzie leaving highlights that Microsoft has been kind of lost in the woods ever since Bill Gates left," said Toan Tran, an analyst at Morningstar. "They let Google solve search, they let Apple figure out smartphones, and Apple is in the process of figuring out non-Windows PC devices with theiPad."