“AllThingsD: reporter Kara Swisher ‘broke’ the ‘news’ yesterday that Microsoft is reorganizing — again,” Roger Kay writes for Forbes. “Apparently that leaky ship is selectively disclosing information about who will do what to whom sometime in the nondescript future. I’m sure this reorg will be just as effective as the past couple of dozen.”
“The cuckoo concept behind this latest chair-swizzle seems to be that a company formerly known for its software will now become a ‘devices and services’ company. Swisher’s sources seem to indicate that execs from Server and Tools, Skype, and Interactive Entertainment divisions will be getting the nod. Windows and Office under the expected new regime: fates unknown,” Kay writes. “Devices and services…”
Read more in the full article, “Reorganizing Chairs On The Microsoft Deck,” here.
MacDailyNews Take: Beleaguered.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Tayster” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Captain Ballmer working hard on rearranging S.S. Microsoft’s deck chairs yet again – June 3, 2013
Microsoft said to again reorganize marketing operations; may include hundreds of job cuts – February 1, 2012
Ballmer rearranges the deck chairs again; seeks to get engineers into executive ranks – February 8, 2011
Microsoft rearranges the deck chairs again; reorgs cellphone, games division – May 25, 2010
Microsoft rearranges the deck chairs – February 15, 2008
I like their strategy. I like it a lot!
I think they are doing the right things and have a perfect strategy, I like it, I like their strategy a lot. I think it’s nearly flawless but at the same time kinda look forward to the next rearranging of the SS deck chairs.
They didn’t hit an iceberg, they shredded themselves landing on it, wedged in, it’s holding them up now but drifting to warmer water.
On FastMoney, yesterday they recommended MS even at these levels 🙂
MS keeps paying its dividend. Has nothing to do with company performance, just whether you can make money off of the stock. So long as MS keeps up its dividend, it’s a good stock to hold.
We should be fair about this, Captain Ballmer does understand that something is wrong and needs to be changed or fixed. The funny part about this is that Captain Ballmer and all the rest of the upper management at Microsoft don’t have a clue about what to do. It is going to be like watching someone that has fallen into the water that can’t swim. A lot of action. Then nothing until the sharks show up.
Maybe they will start building server farms?
Hey Billy Boy Gates…… Your Company Sucks and to add insult to injury….. There ain’t a G Dam thing you can do about it. You and your company are nothing but third rate thieving manipulative HACKS!!! The TRUTH IS PREVAILING. Too bad Steve Jobs is not here with us to witness the demise of your pathetic company.
Glorious words – the demise of Microsoft. At the very least its nice to see them sweat really REALLY hard for a change nervously knowing the future isn’t as rosy or guaranteed for them anymore. The addition of the overachieving ambitious entity known as Google also changes the playing field. Ambitious has never been what Ballmer & Co. were about and now it’s all about that. The lazy worm gets a quick trip to Anonymityville.
I’m waiting for Ballmer to get on the Jenny Craig weight loss program. That’ll be a reorg. in itself.
Veeery interesting to see MS still around.
Really, it’s been history for a while now, kept alive it seems by Office and the excellent XBox.
Meantime, up on the back Samsung has buzzed straight past…
the excellent XBox
The Red Ring Of Death.
Maybe they could make a computer.
It’s called the XBox.
I would have to disagree with MDN on this one. That photo of Bald Ballmer is rather inaccurate: He has too much hair!
What’s really amazing is that MS’s board hasn’t replaced Ballmer by now. Soooo many failures, and counting . . . .
He’s probably the second largest individual shareholder of MSFT.
The day Microsoft makes something that doesn’t suck is the day they make vacuum cleaners.
That’s funny! What’s the correct classification for that humor? Sort of a double-entendre, but in everyday that suggests tawdry, no? Whatever. Good wit!
“What’s the correct classification for that humor?”
thanks, it’s an obamatopoeia.
It is the oldest Microsoft joke on record, strictly Georgebush league.
Gates is the oldes Microsoft joke on record.
It’s called rehashing old punch lines… I think I first heard this line in 1997 (I put it under the acrylic part of the lid of my Powerbook 1400c which is still running BTW). It was a hoot and a half at the time.
These days making Microsoft jokes is almost like defiling the dead.
Ah, the old chestnut’s still knocking about. Heard that over a decade ago, still relevant.
it’s a dandy.
Microsoft to reintroduce Windows 1.0. The company wants to start over and felt that it would start, once again, from the beginning.
They found the Start button… 🙂
The next version will be called Microsoft One. It will come pre-installed on the Xbox One Point One. Also the next generation Surface, the Surface One RT Pro.
Oops. Microsoft Windows One.
Microsoft, if you will allow me to offer a little free advice, and let it be said I’ve never run a billion dollar company (yet :)): Your customers used to be the OEMs like Compaq, IBM, Gateway, etc. They raced each other to the bottom and then 6-feet under. If you want to be successful in current climate then you need to realize your customers are now the end-users.
Creating an operating system that is designed to sell new hardware is an example of still believing your customers are those few remaining OEMs.
Creating a gaming console to sell new games, and lock out old ones at your discretion, is an example of still believing developers are your customers.
Those are the examples of how the strategies you are pursuing now will not return you to your former glory. If it’s not clear from those examples what your focus needs to be, give me a call. Or give anyone else down here in the MacDailyNews comments a call. One of us is surely available within your timeframes to offer strategic consulting. But do expect to pay more for it than you paid for your stake in Dell (one of those *cough* remaining *cough* OEMs who raced to the bottom with their business model).
When a big company doesn’t know what to do next, do they:
Retire the founder as a clue, then;
1. Shareholders fire the Board of Directors?
2. Board of Directors Fire the CEO?
3. CEO fire the marketing managers who picked product lines?
4. CEO fire the division managers of losing products?
5. CEO shuffles the deck & plays ShuffleBoard (on the Titanic)?
Time for shareholders to stand up & VOTE the bums out.
Actually, no. I say, keep things as they are. That Ballmer feller is doing a bang-up job by reorganizing whatever deck chairs haven’t already been flung overboard.
Personally, I think what they oughta do is to use the same methods the company employed to integrate the Danger Sidekick into their system, relaunch the Kin, Zune and especially, Microsoft Bob (New and improved!!! Now compatible with Win 8 and Vista!!!).
If the shareholders want to stand up, and I think they should, the shareholders ought to put their hands together and give it up (that’s right! Give it up for ‘ol Monkeyboy!!) for Steeeeeeeve!
Steve. Definitely. My man. My main man, Steve Ballmer. You have to believe that he has this strategy thing totally nailed.
With this amazing latest reorg, Microsoft will embrace and extend its previous realignment strategies to implement new paradigms on a go-forward basis to enhance the synergies and improve the company’s workflow, dynamically driving the company’s oversight and creating a more transparent 30,000 view of the situation. Or something like that.
Yeah, that about explains everything.
I like their strategy. I like it a lot.
I hope this reorg costs LOTS and LOTS of money.
Spend Microsoft! Spend spend spend!
Pay no attention to the man behind the (blue) screen (of death)!
Oh dear Microsoft. The darling of the tech industry. They may have millions of users around the world using “Windows”, but how many of those are actually enjoying the PC experience on their race-to-the-bottom machines?
I distinctly remember my experience installing Windows 95 many moons ago. One of the intro screens PROMISED the user they will be secure on-line using Windows 95. Really? Really?
And since then, not a single version of Windows has delivered on that promise. On top of this, millions of users have had to deal with updating their computers daily with endless patches and “improvements” that one could argue have been a complete waste of time. In addition, how many of these updates actually broke some other part of Windows or application? Heaps.
I know you’ll be surprised to hear it, but I don’t see any value in any Microsoft product. Blue screens of death, red rings of death, a haven for viruses, phones no one wants, tablets no one wants and a patchwork of updates is what Microsoft has given us.
Enjoy the demise of Ballmer and his buffoons!
One can also make the argument that that is exactly why they need to step it up.