Microsoft says its chief financial officer is departing at the end of the year.

Chris Liddell joined Microsoft as CFO in 2005. He led a major effort to cut $3 billion in costs in the past year after the economic downturn started eating into Microsoft's profits. The plan included Microsoft's first mass layoffs, wage freezes, cuts to employee travel and other expenses.

In the most recent quarter, Microsoft's cash and short-term investments that could be quickly converted to cash jumped to $36.7 billion from $31.4 billion three months earlier.

Microsoft says Liddell is looking at other opportunities. He'll be replaced by Peter Klein, who is currently the top finance officer for the division that produces Office and other business software.