Pondering the Future of a Re-Org'd Microsoft

puddingebola writes "This story from Forbes touches on Steve Ballmer's announcement that Microsoft will reorganize. From the article, 'Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer appears to be planning a major reorganization. His apparent objective is to help the company move toward becoming a "devices and services company," as presented in the company's annual shareholder letter last October.' What follows is an analysis of the current state of Microsoft's current ventures: shrinking PC sales, Nokia management calling for a change of course, Office 360 lagging, a $1 Billion investment in Nook, the losses on Xbox. Once again, if Microsoft starts to lose the revenue of Windows and Office, how long does the boat float? And what of the suggestion, on the verge of another update in the Xbox console, that Microsoft should sell the Xbox division?"

Comments

Never Heard of Office 360

[Anonymous Coward]

What is "Office 360" is that Microsoft office for the X-Box? Sounds like input would be pretty slow.

Re:Never Heard of Office 360

[telchine]

It's the new name for Office 365 after they realised they can only deliver 98.63% uptime.

Re:Never Heard of Office 360

[OakDragon]

They were going to call it "Office 180", then completely changed direction.

Better Idea

[Murdoch5]

How about just stopping the crappy product releases? Windows 8 is a joke, the Xbox 360 is over engineered, your server product make me laugh because Linux can do everything for free and better. When will Microsoft wake up the fact they release crap, users are getting fed up with it. They're losing market share because finally the average user is noticing that better, cheaper and more reliable software and hardware exist. The key to Microsoft becoming successful is to just reboot itself and start turning out high quality products.

Re:Better Idea

[jeffclay]

Imagine that; Microsoft needs to reboot itself to become functional again.

Re:Better Idea

[DougOtto]

"Linux can do everything for free and better"

Linux brings in a substantial portion of my income but statements like that hurt its adoption, not help it. In an "real" corporate environment, Linux isn't free. I've never met a CEO who wanted to base his/her business on unsupported software. By supported, I mean when something goes down, they want a throat to grab (and sue if things get really bad). The result is something like RedHat or OUL, which has support, not definitely isn't free.

Also, if you come into my office and the best pitch you have for Linux on your project is "it's free", you'll be asked to leave.

What in the world are they thinking?

[JDG1980]

Brilliant move! De-emphasize the divisions that bring in the big bucks *and* have a unique advantage over competitors for legacy reasons, while placing even more emphasis on the divisions that lose money and have mediocre market share.

Seriously, this move by Ballmer is about the direct opposite of what a business in transition should do. I wonder how much longer before the stockholders finally kick him out.

To a first approximation, Microsoft *is* Windows and Office. That's what keeps everyone locked in. That's what brings in the big volume licenses. Cede that, and the rest of the edifice collapses entirely. Ballmer might not like it, but Microsoft is a software company and lives or dies on desktop software. The truth is that they have to transition to a more mature company model, paying dividends and making a lot fewer splashes. They aren't ever going to be hip and cool and revolutionary. And their customers don't want them to be.

MS biggest reorganization

[hcs_$reboot]

Ballmer: "Guys, MS will live its biggest reorganization ever: I resign."

Re:Get your resumes ready guys!

[Anonymous Coward]

The only thing inhibiting Microsoft's growth is incompetence at the top.

Re:Why is Ballmer still CEO?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because he was grandfathered in. The guy has no technical or business knowledge and the only reason he has anything to do with Microsoft is because he was lucky enough to have known Bill Gates and Paul Allen when they were forming the company.

MS Languages and platforms a dead end

[gestalt_n_pepper]

VB6 migration path to VB.net: Fuck you. Recode.
Winforms to Web: Fuck you. Recode.
Silverlight to WPF: Fuck you. Recode.
WPF to anything:Take a guess.
Microsoft Office interface: Fuck you. Retrain.
Windows interface: Fuck you. Retrain.
Old Windows phone: Fuck you.
New Windows phone: Maybe we'll let your app on our store, and by the way. Fuck you.

Why anybody, at this point, would invest *any* time in any windows language or platform is beyone me. Think Android. Think iOS.

Re:The circle of lifen

[intermodal]

I don't think IBM should take your insults lying down. IBM knew when to shift. They may not be high-profile in the PC world anymore, but they've certainly spun off their product lines to companies that could handle them. Meanwhile, IBM themselves haven't exactly disappeared. A quick cut-and-paste from Wikipedia: "In 2012, Fortune ranked IBM the #2 largest U.S. firm in terms of number of employees (433,362),[7] the #4 largest in terms of market capitalization,[8] the #9 most profitable,[9] and the #19 largest firm in terms of revenue.[10] Globally, the company was ranked the #31 largest in terms of revenue by Forbes for 2011.[11][12] Other rankings for 2011/2012 include #1 company for leaders (Fortune), #1 green company worldwide (Newsweek), #2 best global brand (Interbrand), #2 most respected company (Barron's), #5 most admired company (Fortune), and #18 most innovative company (Fast Company).[13]"