For "violating company policies" according to Todd Bishop at the Seattle P-I. That's a nice broad swath of possibilities that can cover everything from "we found kiddie porn on his computer" to "the boss just didn't like him much." Thus ends the tenure of Stuart Scott. So far, no one at Microsoft seems to be saying much, nor are those who actually know likely to do so... you don't generally "dismiss" someone at that level without some sort of acrimony.

In the interim, GM Shahla Aly and VP Alain Crozier (the CFO for Sales, Marketing, and Services... it wasn't very long ago that they pulled internal IT out of accounting's purview and now it looks like it may be back again!) will fill the role.

This doesn't have any real effect on customers, but it will be interesting, from the CIO's perspective, to see what Microsoft does with the role after all this talk in the industry over whether or not a CIO is necessary. Somewhere like Microsoft, steeped in technology, may need one less than the rest of us. We'll see what they do.