Earlier today, Microsoft chief financial officer Peter Klein announced his plans to leave the company after four years in the CFO role, and 11 years at the company.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent the following memo to Microsoft employees about the change, along with a summary of the company’s quarter from a financial perspective.
Continue reading, below Ballmer’s memo, for Klein’s memo to the Microsoft finance group about his departure.
From: Steve Ballmer
Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2013 1:06 PM
To: Microsoft – All Employees
Subject: Peter Klein’s Transition & FY13 Q3 Earnings
Today in our earnings release, we announced that after nearly four years as CFO and 11 years at Microsoft, Peter Klein has decided to step down as CFO and leave Microsoft at the end of our current fiscal year. I will be naming a new CFO from our finance leadership team in the next several weeks.
Peter has been a key part of my leadership team and a strong advisor to me during his tenure. He helped drive the successful Skype and Yammer acquisitions, has had a profound impact on the finance profession overall, and exhibited good oversight on cost controls as CFO. I have really enjoyed working with Peter, and appreciate his many contributions to the finance organization, to Microsoft and to me.
I’m sure all of you have seen media coverage from the last two weeks. As I said in our earnings release, our long term bets on the cloud are paying off, and while the mobile device environment is challenging, the decisions we made with Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 set us up well for long term growth. Highlights of our earnings are below. I encourage you to listen to our earnings webcast at 2:30 p.m. Pacific Time today at http://microsoft.com/investor.
Steve
Third-Quarter Financial Results
Today we announced our financial performance for the third quarter of fiscal year 2013. Our diverse business drove revenue and EPS growth of 8%.*
During the quarter, we launched the new Office, our enterprise cloud services continued to gain traction, and we continued to take market share in the data platform. In addition, Xbox maintained its share leadership position and Windows Phone continued to build sales momentum and high customer satisfaction.
On Windows, the device market is clearly evolving as consumers and businesses increasingly shift their focus to touch and mobility. We are well positioned with Windows 8 to move into this new era of computing devices and need to continue to work hard with our partners to capture the device opportunity ahead of us.
*Adjusted for the net recognition of revenue for the Windows Upgrade Offer, Office Upgrade Offer and Pre-Sales, and the Video Game Deferral, partially offset by the European Commission fine.
All growth comparisons relate to corresponding period last fiscal year.
From: Peter Klein
Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2013 1:21 PM
To: FIN Finance WW FTE
Subject: FW: Peter Klein’s Transition & FY13 Q3 Earnings
One noteworthy characteristic of Finance is the regularity of its rhythm – month end, quarter end, year end. Every one of those milestones marks the passage of time. And as time passes, and milestones are marked, we all periodically reflect on our lives, our goals, and our priorities. As we approach the end of the fiscal year, I have been reflecting in that way. And I have decided that now is a good time for me to step away from Microsoft and take some time to spend with my family in a way that I haven’t had the opportunity to do in the 30 years I have been working.
This has not been an easy decision. I love Microsoft. I love my job. When I joined Microsoft 11 years ago I had this loosely held belief that people were one of the most important elements of any job or any company. I had no idea how profoundly true that is, but I do now. People are everything. Microsoft is the most amazing collection of talented, passionate and caring people I could ever imagine being associated with. It’s been an honor and my good fortune to have been part of that.
I am proud of the work that Finance has done and the impact we have had on the Company. One reason that now is a good time to leave is that the organization is very strong, and I am delighted we will be naming an internal candidate. I couldn’t be more optimistic about both the Company’s and Finance’s future.
Looking ahead, I have no specific plans. In the short term I will work to ensure a smooth transition. After that I intend to spend time with my extended family which is dispersed throughout the country and hopefully get to some long deferred travel. For the last 11 years Microsoft has been my family and now I am going to focus on my other family.
Thanks for being such a great team – I will follow your success with great interest and pride.
Peter
