|
Microsoft tech chief leaves
|
 |
May 4, 2000: 2:31 p.m. ET
Chief technology officer will not return full time, but will be a consultant
By Staff Writer Michele Masterson
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Nathan Myhrvold, the chief technology officer at embattled software giant Microsoft, said Thursday that he will continue to act as an adviser to the company, but will not return on a full-time basis.
Myhrvold, who began a sabbatical last July, said he will focus on other interests such as biotechnology, paleontology and philanthropy, but will serve as a special adviser to Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect.
"Nathan's contributions to Microsoft and to the creation of Microsoft Research (MSR) were critical," said Gates in a statement. "I look forward to continuing to work with Nathan, although it won't be in a full-time capacity."
Rick Rashid, who helped start the company's computer research laboratory, Microsoft Research, with Myhrvold, was promoted to Microsoft Research senior vice president, the company announced Thursday.
"Rick Rashid is one of the world's great research leaders," Myhrvold said in a statement. "He built Microsoft Research from the ground up to its current status as one of the top computer science research laboratories. Microsoft Research couldn't be in better hands."
Microsoft's Research center employs over 500 full-time researchers and visiting researchers, who handle more than 30 different research areas, including operating systems, natural language processing, computerization, machine learning, signal processing, and networking. In addition, researchers study theoretical computer science, discrete mathematics and statistical physics.
Microsoft Research will not be impacted
"Nathan is a tremendous person, and his intellect is something that is sorely missed," said Rashid in a statement. "But in terms of the research groups, hiring and everything else, we've been going full speed."
"I don't think it [Myhrvold's leaving] is going to have a negative impact," Rashid added. "We've got a mature organization. If it were a smaller group with only a few strong people, you'd notice it. We've got a group with 40 or 50 top, senior researchers in their fields who have the ability to drive their research areas."
 Wall Street analysts also said they saw no downside to Myhrvold's stepping down, and believed the company is in good hands with Rashid at the helm of its research department.
"I think this was expected," said W. Christopher Mortenson at Deutsche Banc, Alex Brown. "Frequently when people go off and take a year's leave of absence, the most likely outcome is that they don't come back. Myhrvold is a very smart guy and was important to the company, but I think his absence now is built in to the plan."
Melissa Eisenstat, who covers Microsoft for CIBC World Markets, said, "Psychologically, his leaving has the most impact, since there have been a lot of reports about a number of people leaving the company, but that has been more so on the operational side."
USB Warburg analyst Andrew Roskill formerly worked in Myhrvold's research group and said Myhrvold was well-regarded and had trained under famous scientist Stephen Hawking.
"He [Nathan] was very much involved in a lot of their early projects that Microsoft is now embarking on. Nathan was working on projects like interactive television and broadband services 10 years ago," said Roskill. "So, this is not going to have any near-term impact ... Nathan's role there was not something that dramatically impacts the profit and loss.
In addition, Roskill said that since Rashid has been running the research group for a while and because Bill Gates took a more active role in research that the operation is in good hands.
In mid-afternoon trading Thursday, Microsoft (MSFT: Research, Estimates) was off 9/16 at 70.
Click here to send e-mail to Michele Masterson 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Microsoft
|
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNNmoney
|
|
|
|
 |
|
