Many are touting this as Ballmer’s last hurrah. I’m gonna run down the changes very quickly.
There have been rumors of a reorg at Microsoft for quite a while now. There have been many questions on who would stay or who would go. Let’s take a very quick look at the way the new organization shapes up.
So far, Ballmer is still in, obviously. However, many think that if this doesn’t go right, this could be his last hurrah. Microsoft will be reshaped into a single organization with new engineering groups and some centralized groups being creating and changing hands, respectively
Terry Myerson, currently in charge of Windows Phone engineering, will run the new Operating Systems Group. Myerson will be responsible for engineering of Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox operating systems. Myerson also gets handed responsibility for anything that attaches directly to these OSes. All of that is currently running on a common kernel based on Windows NT, so it makes sense to house it all in one place.
Julie Larson-Green, currently responsible for the Windows and Surface engineering groups, becomes responsible for the new Devices and Studios group which will have engineering for Surface, Xbox, mice, keyboards, games and entertainment.
Qi Lu, current responsible for Microsoft’s Online Services Division, is now in charge of the new Applications and Services group. Lu has engineering for Bing, MSN, Office 365, Office servers and clients, Dynamics CRM and ERP, Skype, Yammer and Lync reporting into him.
Satya Nadella, current head of Microsoft’s Server & Tools business (STB), becomes the head of the new Cloud and Enterprise group. Nadella remains head of engineering of all of Windows Server, System Center, SQL Server, Visual Studio and all other current STB products, plus the Global Foundation Services unit at the company.
Kurt Delbene, the former President of the Microsoft Business Division up until now, is retiring.
Microsoft also centralized its support divisions. They breakdown this way:
- Tami Reller will head up a new cross company marketing group.
- Tony Bates, the current President of Microsoft’s Skype group, will head up a new evangelism and business development team. Bates is responsible for key Microsoft partnerships like the ones with Yahoo and Nokia.
- Amy Hood, Microsoft’s current CFO will have responsibility for the centralized finance organization
- The legal affairs group continues to be headed by Brad Smith.
- The human resources group continues to be run by Lisa Brummel.
- Kevin Turner remains Chief Operating Officer, loses control of centralized marketing
I’m cooking up an interesting What-If column related to Microsoft, the reorg and their recent product pricing adjustments for Surface. Come back later this week and check it out.
