By leaving the company in such a measured manner, Raikes has all but ensured that any negative rumors are groundless (one or two always crop up).  What’s more, it seems the veteran (his start date is listed as 1981) actually gave Microsoft more than eight months’ notice, as a replacement was named in the same release as his retirement announcement.

Stephen Elop used to serve as the COO of Juniper Networks, and before that, worked at both Adobe and Macromedia.  Elop will start at Microsoft towards the end of this month, and will gradually assume responsibility for Raikes’s duties.

Judging by Todd Bishop’s report, there are a lot of them.  Bishop notes, "Raikes, 49, was key to the development of the Microsoft Office suite, among many other positions at the company."  Also, "He has been a top lieutenant of Bill Gates, who is retiring from the company this year."

We learned yesterday that Bruce Jaffe, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of corporate development, is quitting, as well.  Microsoft’s stock, meanwhile, is doing about as well as the rest of the market – down 0.93 percent so far today.

Don’t know who Jeff Raikes is? Think Microsoft Office.

Hey, where’s that “Office is dead” guy?

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Robert Scoble is the founder of the Scobleizer blog. He works as PodTech.net’s Vice President of Media Development.

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