News reports from various sources including ZNet, CNet and the Wall Street Journal say Microsoft will announce a reorg soon (rumor says it will be announced Thursday). The reorg will reportedly focus on Windows and Windows Live groups and the two executives supposed to be shown the door are Steve Berkowitz, the former Ask.com CEO, who joined in spring 2006 and has been serving as senior vice president of Microsoft’s online services business, and Mike Sievert, the former AT&T Wireless executive who joined Microsoft in 2005. The rumors say Berkowitz may actually stay on until summer.
Today, news broke that mobile phone operator Vodafone snagged Microsoft executive Pieter Knook to become director of Vodafone’s new Internet services division. Knook has spent 17 years at Microsoft. Interestingly, a Wall Street Journal report made it sound as if this departure was by Microsoft’s hand. Andrew Lees will replace Knook, the AP reports.
Bloggers and news analysts say that all the shifts are due to Microsoft’s culture. That outsiders just don’t fit in. (For a great laugh, view this video spoof of that Microsoft culture, made by one of Microsoft’s own.) But Network World, ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley and others have been reporting on a steady stream of executive departures. Knook is a case in point.
The executive turnover and a bigger reorg isn’t surprising given the impending retirement of Bill Gates. A changing-of-the-guard in many areas of the company can only be expected as Steve Ballmer moves in to re-make the company as his own.
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