New York, July 23: Microsoft Corp is set to announce a plan to strengthen financial management and appoint chief financial officers at seven new business units, the Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday. Microsoft will unveil the plan, part of chief executive Steve Ballmer's reorganisation of the company, at its annual meeting for analysts and institutional investors on Thursday, the Journal said.

The plan will seek to bolster central finance at the Redmond, Washington-based company, which is shifting from a technology-boom headliner to a more mature industry leader, the newspaper said.

In the past, much of Microsoft's financial management was conducted by Ballmer and co-founder Bill Gates, who took excruciating pains to keep track of the company's numbers, the newspaper quoted colleagues as saying.
The new jobs were all open for in-house candidates but few were accepted, with the company instead choosing executives from Disney, Hewlett-Packard and other companies, the Journal said. Bureau Report