LA Reid has announced plans to leave US X Factor at the end of this 'season'

LA Reid is leaving The US X Factor at the end of this 'season' (series), it's been announced.

"I have the utmost respect for Simon Cowell," Reid said in a statement (as quoted here), "he is the very best and I have had the oppor­tun­ity to learn so much from him."

"Working with him on X Factor has been a once-in-a-lifetime exper­i­ence, I'm honored to have sat on the panel with such incred­ible talent."

And Paula Abdul during series one.

"Of course I will miss the show, in my opinion Simon attracts the best talent, but I'm looking forward to getting back to my core business and the respons­ib­il­ity of running Epic Records," added Reid.

Of this whole 'running Epic Records' business, there's an inter­est­ing article here about how badly all the US X Factor acts have done on that label so far.