Has Google Forced Microsoft into Realigning?

The official reason for Microsoft's realignment is the desire to optimize the company departments' efficiency. In fact, by merging some departments, the company has now three "power cores", each of them controlling one of the major fields in which the Redmond company is involved.

Microsoft Business Division will be focused on the enterprise segment, while the other two centers, Microsoft Platform Products & Services Division, which will be responsible for MSN and Microsoft Entertainment & Devices Division, which will be in charge of Xbox 360 and Windows Mobile among others.

What forced Microsoft into making this reorganizing? Was it the competition? Surely, this was one of the reasons. Google, Apple or Sony are just some of the nightmares that haunt the Redmond giant's sleep: the search engine blocks the ascension of its web services, the Cupertino company has taken over, almost entirely, digital entertainment, and Sony's Play Station is selling better than Xbox.

Microsoft is tired of being an eternal candidate for the second place and it's high time for the money invested in MSN, Xbox or Windows Mobile to generate some profit. Not even Microsoft can afford to lose over and over again.

It's obvious that if things don't go as planned, we might witness some more spectacular changes within Microsoft's department layout.