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Elop out as head of Microsoft Office

Stephen Elop, the President of Microsoft's Business unit, is leaving Microsoft to become the CEO of Nokia. Who will become the new head of Office at Microsoft?
Written by Mary Jo Foley, Senior Contributing Editor

Stephen Elop, the President of Microsoft's Business unit, is leaving Microsoft to become the CEO of Nokia.

Nokia's CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo will step down Sept. 20. Elop will take the Nokia CEO reins on September 21.

Elop ran the Information Worker, Microsoft Business Solutions/Dynamics and Unified Communications Groups Business. He joined Microsoft in January 2008 from Juniper Networks where he was Chief Operating Officer.

He was one of the four presidents at Microsoft and a member of the senior leadership team. Elop's Office-chief predecessor was Microsoft veteran Jeff Raikes, who left Microsoft in 2008 and is now the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

My ZDNet colleague Larry Dignan is wondering whether a Microsoft man can fix Nokia. I'm wondering who Microsoft will appoint to replace Elop. No word on whether it will be an insider or an outsider.

Elop's teams have been working with Nokia for more than a year on getting various Microsoft products, like Office Mobile and Communicator to work on Nokia smartphones.

As of Elop's departure, CEO Steve Ballmer will now have two huge parts of the company reporting directly to him. With the departure of former Entertainment & Devices Chief Robbie Bach, announced earlier this summer, Ballmer will have the mobile communications business, gaming and now Office all reporting to him until new presidents are named.

Update: Here's Ballmer's letter to the Microsoft troops about Elop's departure.

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