Two top Microsoft executives to quit as Nadella readies to step in

Two Microsoft Corp executives, Tony Bates and Tami Reller, are said to be in the process of leaving the company as Satya Nadella gets ready to take over as chief executive, Reuters reports citing a media report.

Bates, the former Skype CEO in charge of Microsoft's business development, would call it quits immediately, according to technology news site Re/code. The site reported the development yesterday citing unnamed sources.

Bates had formerly served at Cisco Systems Inc and was a candidate for the top post to succeed Steve Ballmer, who announced retirement plans in August.

The report further said, Eric Rudder, head of advanced strategy, would temporarily take up Bates' duties while marketing executive Chris Capossela would replace Reller

Reller, one of the top female executives at the company and co-head of Microsoft's Windows unit, would continue with Microsoft for some time to help with the transition.

According to the report, Nadella, who was appointed CEO on 4 February, told staff of the changes on Friday and the company planned to announce them publicly tomorrow.

Meanwhile, The New York Times reported that in the biggest shuffling of executive ranks at the company since Nadella, took over, Mark Penn, the former aide to the Clinton family, will assume responsibility at the software giant as  chief strategy officer.

The change would see Penn, who has been an executive vice president at Microsoft overseeing advertising and strategy, gain a bigger hand at determining which markets Microsoft should be in and where it should be making further investments, the report said citing a person briefed on the change who did not wish to be named as it had not been publicly announced.

It is unclear whether the new job comes as a promotion for Penn, since he would no longer oversee Microsoft's huge advertising budget, which will now be overseen Chris Capossela, a longtime Microsoft executive who had been managing the company relationship with retailers and distributors, according to the person briefed on the executive changes said.