After confirming the creation of a Microsoft Interactive Media Division yesterday afternoon, Microsoft Corp also announced the reorganization of its Platforms Group. The company has created three divisions in its Platform group where previously there were four in a bid to focus more heavily on discreet Windows and Internet opportunities. A Desktop and Business Systems Division will be headed by senior VP Jim Allchin. Senior VP Brad Silverberg heads an Internet Platform and Tools Division and a Consumer Platforms Division is being led by senior VP Craig Mundie. The new Interactive Media Division will include the Microsoft Network on-line service, now with 850,000 subscribers, and most of its consumer-related multimedia content-related products such as the Encarta CD-ROM encyclopedia. It will be run by Patty Stonesifer, senior vice-president of the Consumer Division. The new division also will include Microsoft’s strategic partnerships group, run by Peter Neupert, which has alliances with MCI Communications Corp, Tele-Communications Inc and the NBC television network. Microsoft has also moved its consumer productivity products, including the Works suite, into the desktop applications division, which is responsible for the Office applications suite, a move, the company said, to take advantage of the growth in the home and small-business markets, which it says are growing significantly faster than the corporate market, particularly with regard to first time users. The system software for the Microsoft Network is moving in alongside the operating systems busness; that team is developing MSN 2.0 to integrate the on-line product more closely with the Internet. A Microsoft spokesperson told Computergram no layoffs has been planned.
