One of the heads of the old divisions was probably doing a Sinofsky and getting a bit too big for his boots. Nothing like a bit of divide and conquer to keep Nero in power.
STEVE BALLMER KILLS WINDOWS
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has unveiled plans for a massive restructuring at Redmond. From today, the company’s product groups will be dissolved and resurrected as slimmed-down devices and services teams ready to take on Apple, Amazon, Google and others. Microsoft’s chief executive today announced the death of the mighty five …
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Thursday 11th July 2013 19:40 GMT Anonymous Coward
Hmm. don't know. One of the reasons any consultancy will ALWAYS recommend a reorganisation is that it genuinely shakes things things up. I suspect behind this is a massive McKinsey bill, but I actually think this shakeup is a good thing.
i honestly didn't expect that sensible a move from Ballmer.
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Friday 12th July 2013 01:25 GMT xperroni
Nothing like a bit of divide and conquer to keep Nero in power.
The irony is, Nero was actually a quite reasonable guy, who favored diplomacy over military and tried his best to hold the Empire together. He was eventually ousted by those who didn't like how he wouldn't put the armies on march at the drop of a hat. His surviving image as a deranged tyrant who "fiddled while Rome burned" was likewise the result of a smear campaign by those parties.
So no, I don't think it is fair to compare Ballmer to Nero, though not for reasons the Chief Chair Thrower would approve of.
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Thursday 11th July 2013 16:01 GMT Ru
There appears to be one notable fixed point in the reorganisation. One particular bit of corporate structure that is long overdue for a change, and definitely in need of some new blood. One that seems to have consistently underperformed over the past decade or so, and yet escaped censure.
Anyone else spot it?
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Thursday 11th July 2013 19:35 GMT Yet Another Commentard
Re: ya
An old joke:
A man takes a new CEO position, and on his first day sits at his big desk in his corner office, and with little else to do opens the drawers in the desk. To his surprise in amongst the bits of pencil shavings he sees three envelopes. They are numbered in sequence, and the first one is labeled simply "in case of emergency, open me".
He forgets about them for about a week, and the first crisis at the firm happens. In despair he recalls the envelopes, and opens the first. It reads simply "Blame the other guy". So the exec does that, the trouble passes, he is exonerated and he continues.
Some time passes and another disaster befalls the organisation. Realising he can't blame anyone else, and again in despair he decides to open the other envelope. It says "Have a reorganisation." so, to cover his own incompetence he reorganises everything.
Sadly that was not a permanent distraction, and in the dark hours one night, alone in his office he decides to bite the bullet and open the final one. The message is simply "prepare three envelopes..."
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Thursday 11th July 2013 17:55 GMT Gil Grissum
That would be Balmer himself. But in order to cover his failure as a CEO, let's reorganize the company into new pointless divisions, including "Devices and Studios"? We talking about recording studios, movie production studios, TV production studios or art studios? None of those studios requires any Microsoft software to product content, so perhaps Balmer just needs to get the heck out and let someone else take the job and get Microsoft on track without reorganizing the company to cover up his failure as a CEO?
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Saturday 13th July 2013 00:41 GMT Charles Manning
Dear downvotard
Dear downvotard
Find yourself a stock graphing wbsite.
Compare NASDAQ to MSFT over the last 20 years.
Look low MSFT performed pretty well at the beginning and then takes a plunge. MSFT has underperformed NASDAQ by 50% or worse. Shutting your eyes and randomly backing any stock would have been a better policy.
Now, dear downvotard, notice that there is a knee in the graph - where MSFT went from performing well to performing badly. Looks like early 2000.
Hmmm I wonder what happened then?
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Thursday 11th July 2013 17:27 GMT Don Jefe
Re: Failed as in makes nowhere near enough money to justify 8.5bn
It really isn't a contradiction. It has been passed around as a multi-billion dollar hot potato with the only winners being those that sold it. As far as a revenue generator to intrgrate into a business it sucks. It is a fine product but it is not worth nearly what it has sold for as can be evidenced by the fact it only makes big money when it's sold.
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