As expected, Microsoft has announced a far reaching company reorganisation to better align itself with its newly acquired focus on devices and services. In a memo to employees titled, "One Microsoft," CEO Steve Ballmer said the changes will allow them to "innovate with greater speed, efficiency and capability" and that to execute they have to move from multiple Microsofts to one Microsoft.
Indeed, the Redmond-based company has been criticised for having a product lineup that's too heterogeneous and disconnected. The growing rivalry and poor cohesiveness between its own business units has also led to needless duplication of efforts and delays entering crucial new markets like smartphones and tablets.
Going forward Microsoft will pare the number of business units from eight to just four, and functions such as finance and marketing will be centralized rather than being handled independently by each unit.
Current Windows chief Julie Larson-Green will shift to oversee engineering efforts for the Surface tablet, Xbox console, games and peripherals under the new Devices and Studios group. Terry Myerson, current head of Windows Phone engineering, will now lead the new Operating Systems Group, expanding his responsibilities from the mobile side of things to cover Windows and the Xbox's OS as well.
Qi Lu, who currently leads Bing and Microsoft's other Internet initiatives, will take over the new Applications and Services group in charge of Bing, MSN, Office 365, Office servers and clients, Dynamics CRM and ERP, Skype, Yammer and Lync. Lastly, Satya Nadella, remains head of engineering for everything related to the Server & Tools he currently leads, in addition to Microsoft's Global Foundation Services.
As part of the changes, Kurt DelBene, who ran the Office division, will be retiring from Microsoft while Craig Mundie will be stepping off the Senior Leadership team to work on an unspecified "special project" through the end of calendar 2013, and will remain a consultant through the end of calendar 2014.
Many other roles are changing under the newly centralized supporting roles too. Check out the full 2,700-word memo for details of who's in, who's out and what else is changing as part of the reorganization.