Microsoft plans reorganization: In one of his first major moves since becoming president in July, Steve Ballmer is planning a company-wide reorganization with a sharper focus on customers, a spokeswoman said Sunday.
"As usual, the company is looking at the organization to ensure that it is mapping to the most important customer opportunities," said the spokeswoman, Marianne Allison. Although she declined to provide details, she said an announcement would be made in the next several weeks.
The reorganization is expected to include the return of executive Brad Silverberg, who led development of the hugely successful Windows 95 operating system but has been on an extended leave of absence from the company since June 1997. Allison said the company "has been seeking the right opportunity" for Silverberg.
According to a report in The Seattle Times, Microsoft would be reorganized broadly into four new divisions: consumer, enterprise, developers, and knowledge workers.
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MS may make a cellular connection: Microsoft is considering an alliance with Britain's mobile phone company Orange Plc, The Independent of London reported Sunday.
A link with the US software giant would give Orange greater critical mass in the converging computer, telecoms, and broadcasting industries, according to the report. It would also strengthen Microsoft's grasp on another platform of the converging technologies, it said.
The newspaper reported that a spokeswoman for Orange on Friday denied the company was in talks with Microsoft. But the report said industry sources had insisted the prospect of an alliance between the two firms was a subject of discussion between Microsoft and Orange stockholders.
Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa owns a 49 percent stake in Orange, while British Aerospace has a 5 percent holding.
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Gates donates billions: Bill Gates his wife, Melinda, have given US$3.3 billion to their two foundations, reports said Saturday.
Fortune magazine's online report and the New York Times said the world's richest person donated $2.2 billion to the William H. Gates Foundation and $1.1 billion to the Gates Learning Foundation.
The William H. Gates Foundation focuses on world health and population issues as well as other causes. Its endowment with the new gift totals more than $4 billion, the reports said.
The Gates Learning Foundation, formerly known as the Gates Library Foundation, has concentrated on providing computers to public libraries in low income areas.
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