Microsoft News Tracker

In the internal Microsoft email announcing Friday’s aQuantive acquisition, Steve Ballmer also announced a significant reorganization:

Microsoft has reshuffled its organizational chart again, this time adding the Developer and Platform Evangelism team to its Server and Tools division, and then moving that merged entity into the Business division.

The server and tools business, which falls under the leadership of Senior Vice President Bob Muglia, was moved “intact” from the Platform and Services division to the Business division, whose president is Jeff Raikes, a Microsoft spokesperson told eWEEK.

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The developer and platform evangelism team, led by Corporate Vice President Sanjay Parthasarathy, has been merged into the server and tools business, and now reports to Muglia. The changes are effective May 18.

The Business Division is mostly Office although it also includes the old Microsoft Business Solutions and had already picked up Exchange Server as part of the Unified Communications push.

Various explanations are bring offered by Microsoft and the punditry (see above links) for the reorg including that Raikes has now been anointed as Steve Ballmer’s successor. More interesting to me than the executive kabuki dance is why Server and Tools doesn’t rate as a completely separate division as its financial performance would certainly warrant (e.g. here).  It still seems to be the Rodney Dangerfield of Microsoft business units. Anyhow, although there has been no indication to the contrary, one certainly hopes that the practice of breaking out Server and Tools financial results will continue.