Microsoft Corp. still lacks a president but it now has eight chief financial officers. The Redmond-based software company in recent weeks has finished naming financial executives to head each of its seven business units. The unit CFOs will all report to the heads of the business units. John Connors, Microsoft's CFO since 2000, remains the corporation-wide chief financial officer and will work with each of the business unit finance executives.

The chief financial officers will mean better accountability for how each individual business unit performs, said Microsoft spokesman Kent Hollenbeck. In addition, it will let investors see more clearly how each unit is faring. Microsoft indicated that it would appoint people to such positions about a year ago when it started breaking out the finances of its seven units, Hollenbeck said. Although many of the executives have been around for months, Microsoft may now be trying to give them a higher profile, said Matt Rosoff, an analyst with Kirkland-based Directions on Microsoft, an independent research firm that focuses on the company.