Former Windows chief takes over hardware

Terry Myerson will lead a new operating systems engineering group that will span across console, mobile device, and PC. Myerson used to lead the Windows Phone group at Microsoft, but will now oversee the development of Windows across the various ways it's used at Microsoft, including the Xbox OS. Julie Larson-Green takes over a new devices and studios engineering group. Larson-Green took over from former Windows chief Steven Sinofsky to run the Windows division. Her new role will see her lead a group with all hardware development out of Microsoft, including Surface, Xbox, and all PC-related accessories. A separate applications and services engineering group will be led by Qi Lu, focused on the apps, services, and search products from Microsoft.

On the enterprise side, a new cloud and enterprise engineering group led by Satya Nadella will oversee back-end technologies like datacenter, database, and other enterprise IT-related technologies. Nadella will also run Microsoft's tools and datacenter development, construction, and operations. Microsoft is keeping Eric Rudder in charge of the company's massive Research efforts, while Rick Rashid is moving away from Research into the operating systems group.

Marketing assisted by former Clinton electioneer

Marketing will now be led by Tami Reller, former Windows CFO, who will focus on a new marketing group. Mark Penn, the former Clinton electioneer behind Microsoft's anti-Google campaign will "take a broad view" of the marketing strategy according to Microsoft. COO Kevin Turner will continue leading the worldwide sales, field marketing, services, support, and stores.

Tony Bates, former head of Microsoft's Skype division, takes a bigger role that leads the business development and evangelism group. Bates will focus on partnerships like Yahoo and Nokia, while taking the many evangelist groups at Microsoft under his control. Finally, Amy Hood will lead a finance group reporting to Kevin Turner, while the legal group will be run by general counsel Brad Smith. HR responsibilities will continue under Lisa Brummel.

Ballmer rallies the troops

Overall, the changes are sweeping and huge for Microsoft as the company looks to change its structure and management in key areas to try and focus on a Microsoft that works together across divisions, rather than one that has traditionally competed internally. As part of the changes, former Office chief Kurt DelBene is retiring from the company. Ballmer rallies the troops several times in his memo, outlining "One strategy, united together, with great communication, decisiveness and positive energy is the only way to fly." He notes the company's successes, "but we all want more," he says. It's lots of change for Microsoft's 90,000+ employees, and Ballmer simply signed off his company-wide email with "Let’s go."