Microsoft splits its Platforms & Services unit in two
from All about MicrosoftMicrosoft announced on July 23 that it is cleaving its Platforms & Services Division in half and the head of the formerly combined unit is leaving the company.
Microsoft is carving up the so-called PSD unit along the natural fault lines. The Windows and Windows Live team will be one unit, run by three senior vice presidents (Steven Sinofsky, Jon DeVaan and Bill Veghte. And the Online Services Business (OSB) will be headed by a new, and as-yet-unnamed senior leader. Microsoft is conducting a search inside and outside the company for that person.
Both of the new, separate divisions (Windows/Windows Live and OSB) are reporting directly to CEO Steve Ballmer.
Kevin Johnson — one of Microsoft’s three presidents and the current head of PSD – is leaving the company as part of the restructuring. No date or reason for his departure was provided at the time I posted this blog entry.
Update No. 1: Johnson is going to run Juniper Networks, according to the Wall Street Journal. Still no word if his departure from Microsoft is voluntary or not. (I’m betting the latter.)
In its press release announcing the shake-up, Microsoft highlighted that the two businesses — Windows/Windows Live and Online — are doing well.
The reality is a bit different. Microsoft has been struggling to convince the market that Windows Vista, of which it has sold 180 million copies since launch, isn’t a flop. And the Online Services Business continues to be a sink hole for resources, as Microsoft’s latest financial results indicated.
(More to come as I get more info. )
In the meantime, what’s your take? What’s behind the latest shake-up — and will it matter?
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