Microsoft Reorg
Here’s an important, but non-VON story. The Seattle PI published a story this afternoon that Microsoft is reorganizing into three divisions, each with it’s own president. In addition, Jim Allchin (currently senior VP of the platforms division), is retiring.
The new divisions are:
- Microsoft Platform Products & Services Division: Windows, Server and Tools, and MSN. Headed by Kevin Johnson and Allchin, as divisional co-presidents, until Allchin’s retirement.
- Microsoft Business Division: Information Worker (Office) and Microsoft Business Solutions. Headed by Jeff Raikes as president.
- Microsoft Entertainment & Devices Division: Home & Entertainment Division and Mobile & Embedded Devices Division. Headed by Robbie Bach as divisional president.
So why is this particular reorg significant? Two reasons: folding MSN into the platforms group is explicitly placing it where it can be most turned into a Web Services 2.0 company. We’ve seen inklings of this already, as MSN has started to expose APIs. If I am right, expect this to turn into a firehose of APIs as they start to try to compete with Google. Secondly, Allchin, while he is to be lauded for his contributions to the company on the Windows front, has always been the protectionist hawk. He is the one who has most vociferously opposed open standards when others in the company have pushed them. As he departs, the flavor of the Windows organization could change dramatically.
September 21st, 2005 at 1:17 am
[...] Alec Saunders posted an interesting comment in his blog on the recent Microsoft reorganization. If you didn’t hear about the reorg - ZDNets updated coverage is pretty good. [...]
September 22nd, 2005 at 7:15 am
As seen on news.com:
http://news.com.com/Bloggers+debate+what+reorg+means+for+Microsoft/2100-1014_3-5876267.html?tag=nefd.top
September 23rd, 2005 at 2:09 am
Really interesting views there! Especially I am looking forward, to see how Microsoft MSN will be able to compete with Google, as I write about on my blog: http://investinsearch.blogspot.com/
It will be interesting to see the strategic changes at MSN now, and what they can come up with!
September 27th, 2005 at 5:46 pm
[...] Alec Saunders in Microsoft Reorg points out that “folding MSN into the platforms group is explicitly placing it where it can be most turned into a Web Services 2.0 company. We’ve seen inklings of this already, as MSN has started to expose APIs [application programming interfaces].” [...]
October 12th, 2005 at 12:19 pm
[...] These are the basic services for any kind of Voice 2.0 application — presence, text, voice. Microsoft, anyway, has a commitment to SIP, as I have written previously. Today, Yahoo has little in the way of API support for IM, and Microsoft only marginally more. To the extent that both companies continue to create developer opportunities around these platforms, this interoperability announcement could be a huge benefit to the industry. Microsoft’s recent reorg leaves me hopeful that is their direction. A clear sign of this intent would be to publish APIs for presence, test messaging and call control. [...]