Product Groups Reorganized for .NET

Unlike this past spring’s broader-scale reshuffling, only the product groups are affected by the latest major reorganization, designed to accelerate work on .NET initiatives and ensure success of existing money-making businesses. So far, only the upper levels of the executive hierarchy have been affected; the restructuring is expected to permeate down to lower levels of the organization over the coming weeks. One major result of the reorganization is an expanded role for Group Vice President Rick Belluzzo. He gains a new division, led by Group Vice President Bob Muglia, devoted to the development of several core .NET technologies. In conjunction with the latest restructuring, several vice president-and-above promotions were announced.

Summary of the Latest Reorganization

The latest reorganization implemented four major changes:

A new “.NET Services Group” was formed, led by Group Vice President Bob Muglia, who will report to Group Vice President Rick Belluzzo. The .NET Services Group is constructed from elements of Belluzzo’s existing Consumer Group, as well as portions of Muglia’s former Business Productivity Group (BPG). Muglia’s new group is focused on three major areas of software development: back-end services that form the infrastructure for both MSN and .NET (e.g, Passport, MSN Messenger, and Hotmail); communications-centric subscription services targeted initially at individuals but later at business (e.g., collaboration involving shared calendars and documents); and a next-generation user interface that incorporates natural language and speech technologies. The three areas under Muglia are led by Senior Vice President David Cole, Senior Vice President Brian MacDonald, and Vice President Kai-Fu Lee, respectively. Muglia’s main challenge will be to transform a somewhat hazy set of .NET ideas and concepts into a clear set of deliverables.