MSR Silicon Valley is a satellite office, smaller than Redmond, Cambridge, Beijing, and probably several others. Still, it employs (employed?) some heavy hitters, including Turing Award winner Leslie Lamport. Many of these people will probably receive offers to relocate, per the article, but presumably not everyone wants to move to Redmond, hence the existence of the SV lab in the first place. So some will leave Microsoft and seek jobs elsewhere, as will all the researchers that don't receive relocation offers.
As some of my grad student friends have observed, this may be a tough year to be on the academic/research job market...
An academic like that doesn't tend to retire, as they don't tend to be 'working' like the typical office plebe. He'd no doubt be making his own hours and effectively 'working' to satisfy his interests. Retiring is equivalent to stopping his passion.
My observation is that it tends to be the case with any industry-leading expert that they sort of transition into part-time work but pick and choose the work they do so that it isn't really 'work' to them. Holding that much clout has upsides.
Plus that kind of person can make you money just by the talent who will work with you to work with them.
Also great rewards from the right question from the expert to the up-and-coming talent.
As some of my grad student friends have observed, this may be a tough year to be on the academic/research job market...