Jim,
Thanks for the article.
Here is one for you and the thread--from NY Times:
February 6, 1998
Microsoft Shifts Web Unit to Windows Group
By JOHN MARKOFF
AN FRANCISCO -- In a quiet reorganization that is certain to raise eyebrows in light of Microsoft Corp.'s antitrust battle with the U.S. government, the software giant on Thursday moved the group that develops its Internet Explorer World Wide Web browser into the business unit that develops and markets its Windows operating system.
The issue of whether Internet Explorer is a separate application or an integrated part of Windows 95 is at the heart of a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department charging that Microsoft violated a 1994 antitrust agreement.
Thursday's move will shift the Internet Explorer group headed by David Cole, who testified as a Microsoft witness last month, into the company's Personal and Business Systems Group, which is headed by James Allchin.
Microsoft insists that it has the right under the terms of the 1994 agreement to add any new features it likes to its operating systems.
But the Justice Department asserts that browsers are distinct applications and that Microsoft is using its dominance of the operating system market to build a monopoly in the browser market.
In December, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson of U.S. District Court in Washington sided with the Justice Department and issued a temporary restraining order that blocked Microsoft from forcing computer makers to include Internet Explorer as a condition of installing Windows 95 on their products.
Analysts said on Thursday that irrespective of antitrust arguments, the move made sense from a business standpoint.
"Internet Explorer is an integrated product," David Readerman, a financial analyst at Nationsbanc Montgomery Securities Inc., said. "You better integrate the reporting responsibilities."
Under the new organizational structure, three of Microsoft's product groups will report to Paul Maritz, the company's group vice president for platforms and applications. The three are the Personal and Business Systems Group run by Allchin, the Consumer Platforms Group led by Craig Mundie, and a new Applications and Tools Group, which is the responsibility of Bob Muglia.
A separate division, the Interactive Media Group, which is led by Frank Higgins, does not report to Maritz.
In the past, Brad Silverberg headed the Applications and Internet Client Group, which also reported to Maritz and which included Cole's Internet Explorer group. The Applications and Internet Client Group has been disbanded and replaced by Muglia's new Applications and Tools Group.
The reorganization affected several key Microsoft executives. Brad Chase, who was a key member of the company's Internet marketing effort, will move to Allchin's Windows group to become vice president of marketing. And John Ludwig, who had been heading some of the company's Internet and home-products groups, will move to Higgins' Interactive Media Group to run a business called Web Essentials.
Conspicuous by his absence on Thursday was Silverberg, the veteran Microsoft executive behind the development of Windows 95. Silverberg has been on leave since last summer, leading to speculation that he might leave the company. However he sent e-mail to various Microsoft employees on Thursday saying that he was still on leave and was waiting for the right job before returning.
"At that level, there aren't many chairs to fill," one Microsoft employee said. "And the egos are very large."
Ibexx
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