Microsoft Promotes Scott Guthrie To Head Of Cloud, Phil Spencer To Lead Xbox, Confirms Stephen Elop Will Run Devices

This morning Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella announced that Scott Guthrie is now the executive vice president of its Cloud and Enterprise group, Phil Spencer will run its Xbox work, and that, when the Nokia acquisition closes, former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop will pick up the title of executive vice president of the Devices group.

Guthrie had spent the last two months as the “acting” leader of cloud at Microsoft after Nadella became CEO.

The Elop title is no surprise. In an email to employees, published online as a blog post, Nadella reiterated that his company expects “the [Nokia hardware group] acquisition by the end of April 2014.” That comment matches recently changed schedules. The purchase was initially expected to close in the first quarter of 2014.

Spencer’s ascension is reasonable, given that Xbox lost key talent last June when Don Mattrick left his job running the console business for Microsoft to instead run Zynga, the troubled gaming company. The rumor was that he wanted a CEO slot, and got it.

As far as the role goes, Spencer will, to quote Nadella, “take on a new role leading Xbox, combining the Xbox and Xbox Live development teams with the Microsoft Studios team,” while reporting to Terry Myerson.” Myerson heads up operating systems at Microsoft. The decision here scoots Xbox a bit more under the Windows umbrella, it seems.

All told, it’s BUILD week, meaning that we should prep ourselves for a Noah-esque Microsoft deluge. The above is just the first taste.