Bill Gates is gone. Microsoft is now officially Satya Nadella's "Bill's helping."!

In case there was any doubt, the Satya Nadella era has arrived at Microsoft.

Nadella announced Thursday that Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) will cut 18,000 jobs within the next year, part of his push to slim down the company and narrow its focus.
Analysts see this strategy shift as long-overdue. Microsoft dominated the tech industry when Nadella's predecessor, Steve Ballmer, took over from founder Bill Gates in 2000. But in the years since, Microsoft has sputtered.

Microsoft under Ballmer had been slow to respond to innovations from rivals like Apple (AAPL, Tech30) andGoogle (GOOG). It launched a series of poorly conceived devices and two poorly received versions of Windows. Observers questioned Microsoft's direction.

The layoffs Microsoft announced Thursday "speak to Nadella's attempt at cleaning up part of the mess that Ballmer left behind," analysts at FBR Capital Markets wrote in a research note.

The house-cleaning also proves that Microsoft is now officially Nadella's company.

Industry observers often suspected that Gates retained ultimate authority at Microsoft during Ballmer's rocky tenure. Nadella has left the issue unambiguous. The company announced that Gates would step down as chairman on the same day Nadella's hiring was made public.

"I run the place," Nadella said at a conference in May. "Bill's helping."