Microsoft Plans Customer-Based Changes, Seeks Silverberg’s Return

Microsoft Corp. on Sunday said it plans to reorganize into four groups to focus on customer service and hopes to bring back a programming wizard who spearheaded the development of Windows 95 and the Internet Explorer browser.

Brad Silverberg, 44, a former Microsoft executive now on leave, has been invited back to head the proposed consumer group, company spokeswoman Marianne Allison said. The other three groups would be corporations, software developers and home-office workers and telecommuters. Allison said an announcement is likely to be made in March.

“As usual, the company is looking at the organization to ensure that it is mapping to the most important customer opportunities,” she said but declined to comment on details.

She said the company “has been seeking the right opportunity” for Silverberg.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft would be reorganized broadly into four units to be titled consumer, enterprise, developers and knowledge workers, according to the Seattle Times, which first reported the developments Sunday.

The realignment and Silverberg’s ascension are the first major moves by Microsoft President Steve Ballmer to put his stamp on the software giant as it attempts to focus on its customers and on the Internet. Silverberg was a popular leader at Microsoft and is seen as visionary. The plans follow a sweeping review of operations by Ballmer, Bill Gates’ right-hand man.

“When Ballmer did his review, he realized the organization was disconnected from customers, organized around technologies and not customers,” Rob Enderle, an analyst with Giga Information Group, told Bloomberg News.

Ballmer also has been running Microsoft’s interactive media--which includes the MSN network of Web sites--since November, when Pete Higgins resigned as vice president for that group.

“This is fallout from Steve taking over from Bill, making fixes that have been needed for some time, focusing on the customer,” Enderle said.

On leave for about two years after losing a corporate power struggle, Silverberg recognized the widespread competition posed by the Internet early on.

The enterprise group, which could be headed by James Allchin, would take over development of Windows 2000, the forthcoming version of the high-end Windows NT operating system, which is expected to be launched this year, far behind schedule.

Allison cautioned that many details of the pending reorganization have yet to be hammered out.

The realignment, which Microsoft said isn’t related to its court case, would be as important as those following Gates’ 1995 speech outlining the company’s initial push into the Internet and the early-1990s break with IBM Corp, according to Enderle.