that is so good! I was developer marketing in Chris's group (DevDiv) for 7 years. We also did a lot of stuff for developers that was really locked in, organic, driven by people who knew their audience. The best outcomes come from this. This ad is fantastic.

David Campbell: SQL Server, Michael Fortin: Windows, Rico Mariani: DevDiv, @ricomariani Terry Crowley: Office, Eric Brechner: I. M. Wright 😊

上海大头Azure确实全走了，现在只剩devdiv和零零散散一些小部门了。

Multiple Microsoft employees took to social media this week claiming the company has laid off between 200 and 400 Azure R&D staff in Beijing and Shanghai. Affected staff received an email notification, with a signing deadline of June 11 and a last working day of July 6. This is the third round of cuts in China in two years. It's also part of a much larger pattern: since 2025, Microsoft has eliminated over 24,000 jobs globally across multiple restructuring rounds, with Azure repeatedly in the crosshairs. The severance package is N 7 at maximum — relatively generous. Some employees were quietly offered the option to relocate to Canada. Most just got the email. Microsoft's official line: "We remain focused on serving customers and growing our business globally." Translation: the China R&D headcount no longer fits the model. Two dynamics are likely at play here. First, Microsoft is under pressure from both sides — tightening US regulations on data flows to China, and tightening Chinese regulations on foreign cloud operators. Running a large R&D team in that environment is expensive and increasingly complicated. Second, with Azure's global growth slowing, cost discipline is back in fashion. What's notable is what's being cut and what isn't. Azure R&D in China — gone. DevDiv, Microsoft AI teams in Shanghai and Suzhou — untouched. That's not a China exit. It's a very deliberate pruning of the most regulation-sensitive part of the operation.

And then when NT was ported to 64 bit, we built even internal dependencies - things that other Microsoft divisions produced (like Richedit from Office or MFC from DevDiv).

You can take the guy out of DevDiv but you can’t take the DevDiv out of the guy

Soma was a huge part of the developer platform & evangelism movement in the mid-2000s. The VS Code that we all love and use wouldn't be what it is today without his influence. He led the charge on open-sourcing .NET core and radically changed how DevDiv shipped. A true legend who will be sorely missed. RIP Soma. geekwire.com/2026/s-soma-som…

I met Soma several times and had a long dinner chat with him when he was leading the DevDiv. A great man who brought to success many technologies we all use today in the dev world. Namaste!

horrible news :/ spent most of my career at msft in devdiv and seeing him often in 41 and 16.

Just heartbreaking news that "Soma" S. Somasegar has passed away aged 59. His contributions to Microsoft spanned from OS/2 to Windows NT to running DevDiv where he delivered Visual Studio, .NET, and Mobile development tools that so many of us relied on. After Microsoft, he joined Madrona as a venture partner focusing on early stage investments with startups such as UiPath and Snowflake. He was a wonderful human being and will be dearly missed by so many of us. Rest in peace Soma.

Soma (@SSomasegar) was such a wonderful and kind human being. I went from working in his org (DevDiv) 20 years ago to being a board member with him at Statsig just over the past few years and he was always just so kind, generous and high integrity. I am heartbroken for everyone — Madrona folks, his founders, Microsoft folks but of course most importantly his family. May we all touch so many people and be so beloved by those we touch.

BREAKING: Microsoft is undergoing another period of change in its leadership. The departure of Julia Liuson, a veteran executive and head of the developer division, adds to a recent string of resignations and retirements that is restructuring key areas such as GitHub, Windows, Office, and CoreAI within the tech giant. Julia Liuson will leave Microsoft after 34 years and will remain at DevDiv until the end of June before assuming an advisory role. The executive led Microsoft's developer business for 12 years, a period marked by the push for open source and the acquisition of GitHub for $7.5 billion.

Here's what I mean by factory reset: Julia Liuson (Head of Developer Division) Rajesh Jha (EVP of Windows, Office & Teams) Phil Spencer (CEO of Microsoft Gaming / Head of Xbox) Sarah Bond (President & COO of Xbox) Thomas Dohmke (CEO of GitHub) Eric Boyd (Corporate VP - Al Infrastructure) Manik Gupta (Teams Head) Vishnu Nath (VP & GM - OneNote / Copilot Notebooks) John Cunningham - CVP devdiv I'm sure I'm missing more. But yeah, just a retirement, nothing to see here.

just noticed that John Cunningham @PolyglotJoC has also left Microsoft, and DevDiv will never be the same. linkedin.com/posts/johnander…

Julia was the heart and soul of DevDiv.

Devdiv lost its soul as soon as it was placed under CoreAI. The leathers in CorrAI, while might be good for AI, are not for dev tools

That is actually sad. Julia cared about devdiv and the products we are making.

scoop: another veteran Microsoft executive is leaving the company. Julia Liuson, head of Microsoft’s developer division (DevDiv), is resigning from the software giant after 34 years. Full details 👇 theverge.com/tech/908793/mic…

It was a great location for us. EBC center right there. Channel 9 studios where I spent so much time. DevDiv buildings and all my .NET Hero’s and hell just always running into Anders. The three Scott’s and so many others. Feels like a lifetime ago. Learned so much in those years. Loved running between those buildings and coming back to my little office with the lake right there in the middle. Going over to the Windows buildings was not as great. God never any parking lol

As a former DevDiv VP, 3 things: 1) Steady loss of top talent continued bets on the “old guard” 2) Elimination of GitHub as a standalone entity with a CEO (folded into DevDiv) 3) Lack of visionary product leadership, for example, reluctance to disrupt @code and focus on what comes after the IDE