Each and every so frequently,
Windows 7 Code, the debate resurfaces regarding whether or not Microsoft could or ought to be superior off when the enterprise were broken into two or 3 mini-Microsofts.This week, thanks to a brand new Goldman Sachs report which is placing a damage on Microsoft;s stock cost, the issue has come to the fore again. Goldman Sachs has downgraded Microsoft to “neutral” from “buy” and analyst Sarah Friar has proposed a three-pronged plan to “unlock value” in Microsoft shares.As some others have noted, Friar;s plan includes a couple of … fanciful… ideas, such as “become a cloud leader.” (Boom! You;re now a cloud leader, said the genie!) One of her ideas, however, is not quite so far-fetched. What about “divesting a great deal more peripheral assets such as gaming,” Friar suggests.There have been as many different proposals for splitting up Microsoft as proposers of the concept. Split the organization along Windows/Office lines was a favorite of at least one antitrust judge. How about an enterprise/consumer split? What about a consumer/enterprise/services break-up? Or a three-way split between Windows, Office and search?Just last week,
Office Professional Plus, CEO Steve Ballmer named three new presidents. Instead of having a single president running both mobile and gaming,
Windows 7 Enterprise Key, Ballmer opted to name two different presidents to head those units (even though mobile and gaming will continue to report as a single profit-and-loss center when the provider details its earnings).It;s been a long time since gaming was seen as an afterthought by Microsoft or those watching the organization. In fact,
Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft seems to become trying to tie in ever a lot more tightly its Xbox Live gaming service into its mobile communications online business with its heavy focus on gaming with Windows Phone 7. Microsoft execs continue to play up the coming Kinect sensors; appeal beyond gaming, claiming that Kinect is indicative of the corporation;s broader natural-user-interface direction. And Microsoft, like Google and other tech leaders,
Cheap Office 2010, seems to think social gaming will be the next big thing, and no doubt sees plenty of potential search/ad synergies in that space.Based on these trends, I have to say I don;t see the Softies thinking about spinning off its Interactive Entertainment unit under Don Mattrick any time soon.Would even more mini-Microsofts be far more profitable, a lot more focused and extra responsive? Can you see Microsoft;s CEO voluntarily splitting the business up into “Baby Ballmers” any time soon?