Microsoft CFO To Take Leave For VC Firm

John Connors is departing for Ignition Partners Bellevue, Wash., both companies said Tuesday. Connors, who's been with Microsoft for 16 years, had held such pivotal posts as CIO and CFO.

Partners said Connors will hard to replace. "John's personality and style of communicating with partners was one of the highlights every year at the Enterprise Partner Summit (EPS)," said Ken Winell, CEO of Econium, a Totowa, N.J.-based Microsoft partner.

"He will be sorely missed by the partner community because of his ability to relate the complex nature of Microsoft's corporate economics directly to our businesses. I remember when Microsoft had all the DOJ issues and things looked bleak from a partner perspective, John spoke to the partners with such assurance and confidence of how the company would thrive in almost every scenario and those attending could not help becoming enthusiastic."

Another long-time Microsoft watcher concurred. "Connors is a loss for Microsoft. The Street likes him and he has done a good job for them," said this analyst who requested anonymity.

Connors got "too little credit for how well he managed Microsoft's cash mountain the last few years. Said mountain was proof-positive that [Microsoft] had more money than it knew what to do with. Gates's fault - not Connors," said this watcher.

"Microsoft reprtedly had a return on its cash and equivalents that was more than double the corporate average and as an MBA/Finance type, I can tell you that is stunning. Connors did that," he added.

At Ignition, he will join a bevy of other Microsoft veterans including Brad Silverberg, Richard Fade, John Ludwig and Rich Tong.

The news was announced Tuesday on both companies' Web sites.

Ignition's portfolio companies include Certus, Jobster, and Consera.

Connors will work with Microsoft on the transition, according to Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft.

This story was updated Wednesday morning with partner and analyst comment.