Microsoft Announces CFO's Departure

REDMOND, Wash. (TheStreet -- Microsoft(MSFT Quote) CFO Chris Liddell will be leaving the company at the end of this year and Peter Klein will serve as the company's new finance chief, the software giant said Tuesday.

Microsoft revealed Liddell's departure in an Securities and Exchange Commission filing, explaining that Liddell had resigned "to pursue other opportunities." Liddell will remain a Microsoft employee until Dec. 31, it added.

Liddell, who joined Microsoft in 2005, had earned a reputation as an efficient cost-cutter shaving billions of dollars from Microsoft's costs during the recession.

Microsoft recently announced its second round of layoffs this year, cutting 800 more jobs. This followed 5,000 job cuts in January when the recession was raging, its first-ever large-scale layoffs.

Klein, the new CFO, however, is confronted with a still uncertain IT spending environment. The latest round of redundancies, for example, came just days after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer warned that IT spending will not fully recover from recession.

"Peter [Klein] brings great finance and operations expertise and a deep understanding of the company, and I am looking forward to a smooth transition that continues our commitment to cost containment and finance excellence," said Ballmer, in a separate statement Tuesday.

Klein, who has been serving as corporate vice president and CFO of the Microsoft Business Division, will earn a base salary of $500,000, according to the form 8-K.

Despite rumblings of a tech rebound from the likes of Intel(INTC Quote) and EMC(EMC Quote), Microsoft has struck a much less bullish tone.