Blake Irving's retirement email to the Live group:

Quoted: After nearly 15 years at Microsoft and 6 years of weekly commuting from California, I am retiring. I’ve been talking to Kevin Johnson about this since the beginning of the year, and we’ve been working on a plan that will ensure a seamless transition that we hope will build even better business and technical synergy for Windows Live and MSN. I’m not leaving right away, so I guess “impending” isn’t really true. I won’t be leaving until late summer. The timing of my retirement is a combination of business and personal considerations, each being quite positive from my perspective.