Blogs

Blake Irving, a key executive in Microsoft's Windows Live online group, plans to leave the company, Mary Jo Foley reported today. I reached Irving at his home Friday evening, and he declined to comment on the report, or on his plans.

"I really can't talk about it," he said.

Irving's responsibilities include the build-out of the company's online data centers. His role has included oversight of the MSN and Windows Live communications services, including its online e-mail and instant-messaging programs.

The move would be the latest in a series of executive changes in the company's Platforms & Services Division, which includes the Windows operating system and Microsoft's Windows Live online services, many of them formerly branded MSN.

Irving is "the last of the high level VPs from the old MSN who is still in a significant position of power," said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Kirkland-based research firm Directions on Microsoft. If Irving does plan to leave, it could be viewed as part of the ongoing reshaping of the Windows and Windows Live executive teams under Kevin Johnson, the president of the Platforms & Services Division, Rosoff said.