AllThingsD » Bill Veghte

Exclusive: HP Labs Head Prith Banerjee Leaving

Arik Hesseldahl — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 22:37:19 +0000

Prith Banerjee, a Hewlett-Packard senior vice president — and for five years the head of its research and development organization, HP Labs — is leaving the company effective April 15, according to an internal company memo obtained by AllThingsD. Banerjee is leaving for a position that will be based outside the U.S. with another organization, but that organization’s identity couldn’t immediately be learned.

Chandrakant Patel, an HP Senior Fellow, director of its Sustainable Ecosystems Research Group and 21 25-year company veteran, will head up HP Labs while a search for Banerjee’s replacement is conducted. Patel first joined HP Labs in 1991.

HP Labs forms the backbone of the company’s research and development efforts, on which HP spent $3.3 billion in its 2011 fiscal year, or about 2.5 percent of sales. That’s up from $2.8 billion in 2009.

A source familiar with the matter says that CEO Meg Whitman is looking for a greater focus at HP Labs on innovations that can more readily be spun into products that can be brought to market. The most prominent innovation to come out of HP Labs in recent years has been the development of the memristor, a type of circuit that allows the creation of memory chips that are fast, like conventional DRAM memory, but also hold information when they lose their power supply, like flash memory. HP disclosed that it had proven the memristor’s existence in 2008 — it had before that time been only theoretical — but four years later there are as yet no products based around it.

After taking over as CEO last year, Whitman ordered HP Labs to report directly to her. Previously, the unit had reported up through the chief strategy officer.

Banerjee, who I interviewed last May as part of my ongoing Seven Questions series with AllThingsD, had led HP Labs since 2007 during the years Mark Hurd was CEO. He gained a reputation for adjusting HP’s research focus and placing bigger bets on fewer projects.

Before HP, Banerjee had taken leave from the academic world to build a chip start-up called AccelChip, which he sold to Xilinx in 2006. Before that he had been dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In that post, he oversaw a faculty of 115 in six engineering departments, with 1,550 undergraduate and 900 graduate students, and $21 million in annual research funding.

The memo from Whitman to HP employees announcing the change is below.

HP Confidential
TO/ HP Technologists
SUBJECT/ Leadership Announcement

I am writing to share the news that Prith Banerjee, senior vice president of research and director of HP Labs, is leaving HP effective April 15, 2012. He will be assuming a role outside the company, which will be announced at a later date. I am pleased to announce that Chandrakant Patel, senior fellow and director of the Sustainable Ecosystems Research Group, will serve as the interim director of HP Labs until a permanent successor is identified.

Prith has been a strong contributor to HP’s product innovation and has substantially increased the visibility of Labs within the business. He’s led breakthrough research, including data de- duplication, flexible displays, the memristor and nano-technology sensors (CeNSE). Prith has a passion for innovation I know you all share – a passion that will continue to flourish at HP Labs. I wish Prith well in the future.

We’re extremely fortunate to have someone of Chandrakant’s talent and experience ready to step into Prith’s shoes. As you all know, Chandrakant is an HP veteran who has been with the company for 25 years. His team has taken numerous technologies to market, including innovations that span servers to data centers, such as the current research in sustainable data centers which is being transferred to our enterprise business. He will continue to drive Labs forward during this transition, and I couldn’t be more pleased that he has agreed to assume this interim role.

Innovation is core to HP. HP Labs generates the research that turns ideas into products. As you have heard me say, one of our goals is to improve the connection between Labs and the business, so we can accelerate the path to market and translate innovation into business results. This, in turn, will help to generate growth and enable continued investment.

Please join me in thanking Prith for his service and in supporting Chandrakant with his new responsibilities.

Best,
Meg

Seven Questions for Bill Veghte, Hewlett-Packard's New Chief Strategy Officer

Arik Hesseldahl — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:25:03 +0000

Earlier this week, Hewlett-Packard gave Bill Veghte, its executive vice president for software, a new title: Chief Strategy Officer. The job has been vacant since Shane Robison retired last year.

Veghte joined HP in 2010 after 20 years at Microsoft, where he managed the $15 billion Windows business and oversaw the launch of Windows 7. At HP, he has been credited with growing its software revenue by 18 percent last year.

Given Veghte’s history as a software guy, his appointment to this role can’t help but be seen as a key signal by CEO Meg Whitman of the role she sees software playing in HP’s strategy going forward. That was one of the things I asked Veghte about when we spoke by phone earlier this week.

AllThingsD: What, in your view, is the role of the chief strategy officer at HP, and what do you expect it to entail in the coming year?

Bill Veghte: As we’re out talking to customers, they’d like to buy more from HP; they’d like HP to be more successful. They look at the advances we’re making in networking or storage or printers, but they want to know why the whole is greater than the sum of is parts. What is HP’s strategy for continued leadership in the market transitions that are going on? And some customers would say that where HP is concerned, that’s not a fully realized opportunity.

And you’re coming at it from the software part of the business, and we’ve heard from Meg saying she’d like to grow opportunities in software. Your appointment, to me, sends a bit of a signal that software is going to be a big part of HP’s strategy to get things turned around. Is that accurate?

I think, certainly, as I talk to Meg and Ray [Lane, HP chairman], and with the members of the executive committee, I’ve found that this is a catalyzing role. If done right, there are different models of strategy in different Fortune 500 companies. And the one that makes sense here is catalyzing with other business units. Whether that’s Vijay Joshi in printing and imaging, or with Todd Bradley in PCs, or John Visentin in the enterprise group, there’s a strategy that each one of those is trying, and which is accretive to a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. And so, to the extent that software is glue or networking is glue, I think it’s a statement that has more to do with a pan-HP strategy than something that’s specific to software.

What’s Job One, starting on your first day?

Job One is making sure that as we have those conversations with customers, they see an HP that is unified around a set of constructs and offerings that deliver what they need. It’s different from having offerings that are, by themselves, individually great. It’s about having unifying themes and constructs.

It seems that you’re talking about finding a way to routinely and thoughtfully combine different things that HP makes or does, in ways they aren’t being done now. Is that what you’re getting at?

I think that very accurately characterizes the opportunity. When we talk to the leadership team, we hear a lot of the same thing. There is a lot of great stuff within HP, whether you get that in terms of market position, or IP, or people. I like how you put that: How do you routinely and thoughtfully combine things, particularly in light of the market inflections that are happening. We are in a tectonic shift, and that can be an opportunity, if you clearly spell out the value proposition for customers. Not only in each one of the units, but where you’re thoughtfully combining them so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

I thought of an example around meeting the needs of the market. There was an IHS iSuppli report out earlier this week about cloud servers, which are growing. But customers are going to Taiwanese ODM companies to get customized products, while at the same time cloud servers are growing generally. Is this the sort of thing that might affect HP?

I was talking to Dave Donatelli [general manager of Enterprise Servers] about this recently. It’s interesting, because it seems like in more recent months it has flipped back, because of the integration within that customization. A great example that Dave and I have been working on is the whole cloud system piece. You’ve got a lot of great stuff in automation and orchestration software that is inherently cross-platform, and which crosses virtualization engines and marrying that deeply with the converged infrastructure. We’re the only company that can give you a single stack, soup to nuts, from a single vendor. The core construct is that there’s a lot of private cloud build-out going on, and those customers who are doing it are saying they don’t want to be the systems integrator for six different vendors, and they also prefer not to be locked in to a single vertical stack. That’s a huge advantage for us. And to your point about routinely and thoughtfully combining, we should do exactly that. It’s been doing well for us in the marketplace, but how do you make that routine against the opportunities we see in the marketplace?

You spent about 20 years at Microsoft. How does that inform what you’re bringing to this job?

At the core, any of these jobs are about identifying and exploiting market shifts for customers. I had the privilege of having a front-row seat during some big marketplace disruptions, and helping catalyze businesses and delivering superior market positions and solutions. It’s all about handling change, and turning it into an opportunity.

Sterne Agee's Shaw Wu Likes the Look of the Newly Streamlined HP

Arik Hesseldahl — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 12:50:25 +0000

Before yesterday’s big management shakeup was announced at Hewlett-Packard, the company’s shares were trading at their lowest levels in about two years. When the market opens today shareholders will indicate whether they like what they see.

It was for Hewlett-Packard another of those sudden, jarring shifts where the course of the company diverges from being one thing, to something new entirely. Léo Apotheker’s remaking of the company, which began with January’s purge of four board members, is now well underway. Ann Livermore’s departure from head of the enterprise business to a seat on the board of directors is making way for a new power trio of executives who will report directly to Apotheker: Dave Donatelli, executive vice president, Enterprise Servers, Storage, Networking and Technology Services; Bill Veghte, executive vice president, Software; and Jan Zadak, executive vice president, Global Sales. I’ve already taken to calling them the DVZ Trio.

Shaw Wu, a tech analyst with Sterne Agee, in a note issued to clients this morning, said he likes what he sees. Donatelli is effectively the new head of the enterprise business, succeeding the legendary Livermore who had more than once been considered a serious contender for the CEO job. He says that given HP’s renewed emphasis on software Veghte will play a key role as well. “While we believe it is too early to judge whether these changes are for the better or not, we do believe they make sense in streamlining operations and increasing accountability,” Wu writes.

Wu said he’s maintaining his “Buy” rating on HP shares based on their growth prospects in networking, storage and software. He notes that in the most recent quarter, the server business grew 11 percent, networking grew 14 percent and software 17 percent, year on year. “In addition, we now see opportunity to expand services margin back to its previous industry leading levels.”

With HP trading at a valuation of 6.5 times its projected earnings for the 2012 calendar year, he likes the risk. His price target of $53, which would amount to an 18 percent improvement in the share price, is based on the assumption that HP should be valued at closer to 10 times its estimated per-share earnings for 2012. He writes: “In addition, we view HPQ as a fairly defensive play with its recurring profit streams, broad portfolio and geographic exposure and room for operating leverage.”

So far the market is agreeing with him. In pre-market trading, HP shares were up 15 cents to $34.80 as of 8:30 am New York time this morning.

HP's Big Shakeup: Bocian and Mott Out; Livermore Steps Down, Joins Board

Arik Hesseldahl — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 20:27:15 +0000

Our sources telling us that Hewlett-Packard was on the verge of a another big executive shake-up were correct, but they only had part of the story. As reported earlier today, Peter Bocian, the chief administrative officer, is out, effective immediately. We’re told he’s close to landing a job somewhere in the investment banking industry.

CIO Randy Mott is also out, effective immediately, HP says.

Ann Livermore, the executive vice president in charge of HP’s Enterprise business, will step down from her day-to-day job and join the board of directors.

My sources were also correct in telling me that Dave Donatelli, was going to be promoted: He was, along with Bill Veghte, executive vice president, Software. Both will now report directly to CEO Léo Apotheker. So will Jan Zadak, the recently appointed executive vice president for Global Sales.

Here’s the announcement in full from HP, and below that some video highlights from Apotheker’s appearance at D9 earlier this month.

HP Announces Organizational Changes

New structure aligns HP to better capitalize on strategic market opportunities
Livermore joins board of directors
Donatelli, Veghte, Zadak to report directly to HP CEO Apotheker

PALO ALTO, Calif., June 13, 2011

HP today announced organizational changes that will more closely align its corporate structure with the strategy it announced in March.

The organizational changes will increase transparency for these business functions relative to the company’s strategic roadmap, sharpening the executive team’s focus on customer-facing businesses, further enabling opportunities for synergies across business units, and positioning HP for the opportunities it sees in the market. The company also announced that one of its most successful executives is joining the HP board of directors, and it has appointed executive sponsors for two of its most important growth markets.

Ann Livermore has been elected to the HP board. Her election reflects the success of her career as one of the IT industry’s most talented and respected executives. During her 29-year career with HP, Livermore has been instrumental in helping countless HP customers grow and transform their businesses. While she will step down from her day-to-day management of the HP Enterprise Business, Livermore will contribute valuable guidance to the organization as a member of the board. To effect a smooth transition, Livermore will continue to serve as interim lead for HP Enterprise Services and sponsor certain key accounts until a new services leader is named.

“Ann’s distinguished role as a leader of our largest business, deep relationships with our most important customers, institutional knowledge of the company and its employees, and insights on the technology industry will be tremendous assets to our board of directors,” said Ray Lane, non-executive chairman, HP board of directors. “On behalf of HP’s 320,000-plus employees, I would like to congratulate Ann on her election and offer our heart-felt gratitude for her long service and dedication to this company.”

Customer-facing business units to report to CEO

Elevating businesses most critical to customers and which play a key role in delivering on the opportunities the company sees as the IT industry evolves, Dave Donatelli, executive vice president, Enterprise Servers, Storage, Networking and Technology Services, and Bill Veghte, executive vice president, Software, will now report directly to Léo Apotheker, HP chief executive officer and president, giving their respective units greater visibility and support throughout the entire HP organization. Similarly, Jan Zadak, executive vice president, Global Sales, also will report to Apotheker, facilitating efforts to better leverage the full HP portfolio to deliver integrated solutions for customers and partners.

“These businesses play a vital role in our continued growth and success, and as such, Dave, Bill and Jan will report directly to me and help drive the overall direction for HP,” said Apotheker. “In our ongoing effort to accelerate our progress in executing our strategy, we will continue to make the necessary changes that streamline our operations, drive focus and agility, and position us for success.”

As part of the realignment to improve the company’s focus on customer-facing businesses, HP will streamline its administrative operations. HP will eliminate the chief administration officer role and broaden the role of its chief information officer. As a result, Pete Bocian, executive vice president and chief administrative officer, is leaving HP, effective immediately. The functions that make up that organization will be subsumed within other parts of HP. In addition, Randy Mott, executive vice president and chief information officer, is leaving HP effective immediately. The company will conduct a search for a successor. The company thanks Pete and Randy for their efforts and wishes them the best in their next endeavors.

Executives to sponsor key markets – China and India

As communicated in March, one of HP’s key priorities will be to deliver unique and innovative market-specific solutions to customers. Both China and India are critical markets to HP, and the company will increase its dedication to supporting these markets. To achieve this, in addition to their existing global business leadership roles, Todd Bradley, executive vice president, Personal Systems Group, will lead cross-business initiatives focused on expanding HP’s market share in China, and Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, Imaging and Printing Group, will lead similar efforts in India.

About HP

HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure at the convergence of the cloud and connectivity, creating seamless, secure, context-aware experiences for a connected world. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

[ See post to watch video ]

HP to Buy ArcSight for $1.5 Billion

John Paczkowski — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 12:39:30 +0000

As expected, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has agreed to acquire ArcSight for about $1.5 billion, cash. HP said this morning that it will pay $43.50 a share for the security-software maker, a 24 percent premium over it’s closing price last Friday. “From a security perspective, the perimeter of today’s enterprise is porous, putting enormous pressure on clients’ risk and compliance systems,” Bill Veghte, HP’s executive vice president of software and solutions, said in a statement. “The combination of HP and ArcSight will provide clients with the ability to fortify their applications, proactively monitor events and respond to threats.”

Microsoft Loses Another Windows Veteran

John Paczkowski — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:49:42 +0000

High-level Microsoft departures are becoming a regular event. Last month, Windows senior VP Bill Veghte said he is leaving the company after 20 years. This month, it’s Mike Nash, corporate VP for Windows Platform Strategy, who has tendered his resignation.

Nash spent 19 years at Microsoft (MSFT), where he led development of Windows NT, Windows 2000 and, more infamously, helped manage fallout from the “Vista Capable” fiasco. He was among the more prominent public faces of Windows over the years, so it’s odd to see him stepping down so suddenly.

“We can confirm that Mike Nash is leaving Microsoft in a couple weeks,” Microsoft said in a statement. “In his 19 years, Mike made an impact in number of key roles at the company. We appreciate his service and wish him well.”

It’s not yet clear why Nash is leaving or where he’s headed, though Mary Jo Foley says he may soon surface on the Kindle team at Amazon (AMZN).

Sinofsky Named Windows Division President (Official Announcement and Memo)

John Paczkowski — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:41:06 +0000

Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president of Microsoft Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, was given a bump-up in title today. TechFlash reports that Sinofsky was promoted to president, joining Stephen Elop, Bob Muglia, Qi Lu and Robbie Bach as the fifth company executive with that title. The official announcement and all-hands memo, below:

Microsoft Promotes Steven Sinofsky to President, Windows Division
Tami Reller to lead Windows Marketing and Finance

REDMOND, Wash. — July 8, 2009 — Microsoft Corp. today promoted Steven Sinofsky to president of the Windows Division. Sinofsky, a 20-year Microsoft veteran, most recently led the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, contributing to the Oct. 22 availability of Windows 7.

As president, Sinofsky assumes responsibility for the Windows business including both the engineering and marketing functions for Windows, Windows Live and Internet Explorer.

“Steven Sinofsky has demonstrated the ability to lead large teams that deliver great products. The work he and the team have done in getting ready to ship Windows 7 really defines how to develop and ship world-class software,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. “He is a perfect fit to lead the Windows group.”

Sinofsky began his career at Microsoft in 1989 in engineering and has held multiple positions on Microsoft product teams. His full biography can be found here.

In addition, Tami Reller, currently chief financial officer (CFO) for the Windows Division, will take on the additional responsibility for marketing. Bill Veghte will be moving to a new leadership role in the company to be announced later this year. The transition between Reller and Veghte is timed to take place in late July when Windows 7 reaches the release to manufacturing (RTM) milestone.

Reller joined Microsoft in 2001 as part of the acquisition of Great Plains Software Inc. Reller was the CFO of Great Plains at the time of acquisition and had previously served in a number of senior marketing, sales and general management roles. Since joining Microsoft, she has held a variety of leadership positions including corporate vice president of marketing for Microsoft Business Solutions, where she was responsible for the launch of the Microsoft Dynamics brand. She will report to Sinofsky and will retain her responsibilities as CFO.

“In addition to her in-depth knowledge of the Windows business, I’m excited that Tami will bring to Windows her experience in marketing and finance, along with a history of fostering a strong and profitable partner ecosystem in business software,” Sinofsky said.

Jon DeVaan will continue in his role as senior vice president, reporting to Sinofsky. DeVaan managed the engineering team responsible for creating the core components of both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

And now, the all-hands memo from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer:

Windows is one of the franchise brands and products for Microsoft. Each new version of Windows is a visible and significant milestone for the company. We will soon finish Windows 7 and hand it off to our partners for general availability on October 22nd.

With this transition, we want to ensure we are setting up for the next release and continue the market leadership and momentum that we have with Windows today. Accordingly, I am pleased to announce today that Steven Sinofsky will be promoted to President of the Windows Division. Windows 7 is receiving terrific feedback from customers, partners, analysts alike, and the entire Windows team has done a great job.

With this promotion, Steven assumes responsibility for the Windows business including both the engineering and marketing functions for Windows, Windows Live and Internet Explorer. Jon DeVaan will continue in his role as senior vice president, reporting to Steven. In this role, Jon will continue to manage the engineering team responsible for creating the core components of both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 and is responsible for the PC ecosystem engagement and technical readiness.

We are also pleased to announce today that Tami Reller, currently CFO for the Windows Division, will take on the additional responsibility of marketing for the Windows Division. Tami brings a strong background in delivering successful brands to market, most recently with the introduction of Dynamics in her previous role as marketing vice president for MBS. Tami takes over the marketing responsibility from Bill Veghte who will take a new leadership role in the company to be announced later this year. Bill and Tami will work closely together through this month to ensure we deliver on the momentum currently building for the launch of Windows 7.

Under Bill’s leadership, the team has re-energized our approach to marketing and selling Windows and the PC, built stronger relationships with our partners and has laid the right plans for delivering Windows 7 into the market. In particular, the “I’m a PC” campaign has really helped energize the brand and create emotional connections between our product and our customers. Bill has a long track record of success at Microsoft in a variety of capacities and we look forward to his continued contributions.

As we start the new fiscal year, we do so with a full slate of great products, healthy businesses and strong leadership. We would like to recognize Steven, Bill and Jon for their leadership of Windows and congratulate Tami on her new expanded role.

Steve

And by “Holidays,” We Mean Christmas, Chinese New Year or Easter

John Paczkowski — Mon, 11 May 2009 22:00:27 +0000

Microsoft (MSFT) has finally given Windows 7 a release date. According to Bill Veghte, senior vice president for Windows, the next iteration of the operating system will arrive at market in time for the holiday shopping season. “We’re tracking well to deliver Windows 7 in time for holiday availability based on the groundswell of feedback we received from the partner ecosystem, customers and through our own internal testing from pre-Beta to now,” Veghte said in a statement, adding that Microsoft “will not ship the product…until it meets our quality bar.”

And if the OS should fail to meet that quality bar and its release date slips? Well, hey, Vista taught us that lunar new year is the new Christmas, right? As Brad Goldberg, general manager with Microsoft’s Windows Client Product Management team, said in 2006, when the company revealed that Windows Vista wouldn’t hit the consumer market in 2006, but in January 2007: “January has emerged as almost a second Christmas, with gift cards, sales, etc. It’s a new trend.”

And by “Holidays,” We Mean Christmas, Chinese New Year or Easter

John Paczkowski — Mon, 11 May 2009 22:00:27 +0000

Yusuf Mehdi Gets a Big New Job at MSN–But Still No Digital Head in Sight

Kara Swisher — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:07:15 +0000

Longtime Microsoft exec Yusuf Mehdi (pictured here) is taking over a big part of Microsoft’s online services portfolio–including marketing, online audience business development and product management for MSN and the search properties.

But Microsoft (MSFT) has yet to name an overall digital head for these online properties, which has been promised by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer since the departure of Kevin Johnson in late July.

Mehdi is essentially getting a part of the portfolio of Microsoft SVP Bill Veghte, who will now be primarily focused on Windows and Windows Live business groups.

Mehdi was previously the SVP for strategic partnerships under Johnson.

He is now part of a troika that includes Brian McAndrews, the SVP for the advertiser and publisher solutions group, and Satya Nadella, the SVP who heads engineering for Microsoft’s search, portal and advertising platform group. (Both are pictured here, left to right.)

Who will lead this three-headed beast is still unknown–both Mehdi and McAndrews have been considered the top internal candidates to lead the online properties group, which has been struggling for direction after Microsoft’s failed takeover of Yahoo (YHOO).

Yahoo’s shares have plummeted in recent days, as Wall Street has been hard hit, closing at just below $17 a share today, with a market cap of almost half of what Microsoft’s initial offer was early this year.

To stir things up and catch archrival Google (GOOG), Ballmer has reportedly been trying to recruit a superstar exec from outside the company, including Silicon Valley, to no avail.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's Full Memo to the Troops About New Reorg

Kara Swisher — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:46:06 +0000

Here is the full memo Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent out to the troops about the big changes in its organization, including the departure of Platforms and Services Division President Kevin Johnson, in which he addresses Apple, Yahoo, Google and more:

From: Steve Ballmer
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 4:30 PM
To: Microsoft–All Employees
Subject: FY09 Strategic Update

With FY08 complete, I want to discuss my priorities for the year ahead and share my thoughts about the key strategic topics that are on everybody’s mind, including Windows, competition with Apple and Google, our software plus services strategy, and Yahoo.

I also have news about an organizational change and a transition in our Senior Leadership Team.

First, I want to thank you for your hard work and the dedication you showed during the past 12 months. FY08 was a milestone year. Our revenue jumped $9.3 billion to more than $60 billion. Operating profit grew 21 percent to $22.5 billion.

These outstanding numbers are the direct result of your commitment to the priorities I outlined last July. A lot has happened since then, but our fundamental strengths, challenges, and strategic goals remain largely the same. Therefore, my priorities are consistent with last year. In FY09 we must continue to:

1. Invest in the right opportunities;

2. Expand our presence with Windows, Office, and developers;

3. Drive end user excitement for our products;

4. Embrace software plus services; and

5. Focus on employee excellence.

By focusing on these five areas, we can continue to grow revenue, increase profit, and expand our market share. These priorities are also critical as we work to address key issues surrounding our business in the coming year:

· Windows: The success of Windows is our number one job. With SP1 and the work we’ve done with PC manufacturers and our software ecosystem, we’ve addressed device and application compatibility issues in Windows Vista. Now it’s time to tell our story. In the weeks ahead, we’ll launch a campaign to address any lingering doubts our customers may have about Windows Vista. And later this year, you’ll see a more comprehensive effort to redefine the meaning and value of Windows for our customers.

We also have to drive developers to create rich applications for Windows. With Internet Explorer and Silverlight, we have great tools for creating applications that run everywhere. But we also need to make sure developers have the .NET skills to write unique Windows applications using Windows Presentation Foundation. To keep today’s Windows applications alive, vibrant, and exciting, we need both—applications that run everywhere and rich client applications.

· Apple: In the competition between PCs and Macs, we outsell Apple 30-to-1. But there is no doubt that Apple is thriving. Why? Because they are good at providing an experience that is narrow but complete, while our commitment to choice often comes with some compromises to the end-to-end experience. Today, we’re changing the way we work with hardware vendors to ensure that we can provide complete experiences with absolutely no compromises. We’ll do the same with phones—providing choice as we work to create great end-to-end experiences.

· Business and enterprise: Our enterprise and server business has never been stronger—today we are on the verge of becoming the number one enterprise software company. We need to continue to push on all fronts—mail with Exchange, business intelligence with PerformancePoint, virtualization with Hyper-V, and databases with SQL Server. We have to drive our enterprise search capabilities, our unified communications solutions, and our collaboration technologies. And we must continue to compete against Linux in key workloads such as Web servers and high performance computing.

· Software plus services: Some people think software plus services is all about search. But it’s really about changing the way software is written and deployed. The future is about having a platform in the cloud and delivering applications across PCs, phones, TVs, and other devices, at work and in the home. It’s also about driving change in business models through advertising, subscriptions, and online transactions. Software plus services is a huge opportunity for us to deliver new value on the desktop and the server to all of our customers. This year at PDC, you’ll hear more about our cloud platform initiatives and the next versions of our Live and Online technologies.

· Google: We continue to compete with Google on two fronts—in the enterprise, where we lead; and in search, where we trail. In search, our technology has come a long way in a very short time and it’s an area where we’ll continue to invest to be a market leader. Why? Because search is the key to unlocking the enormous market opportunities in advertising, and it is an area that is ripe for innovation. In the coming years, we’ll make progress against Google in search first by upping the ante in R&D through organic innovation and strategic acquisitions. Second, we will out-innovate Google in key areas—we’re already seeing this in our maps and news search. Third, we are going to reinvent the search category through user experience and business model innovation. We’ll introduce new approaches that move beyond a white page with 10 blue links to provide customers with a customized view of their world. This is a long-term battle for our company—and it’s one we’ll continue to fight with persistence and tenacity.

· Yahoo: Related to Google and our search strategy are the discussions we had with Yahoo. I want to emphasize the point I’ve been making all along—Yahoo was a tactic, not a strategy. We want to accelerate our share of search queries and create a bigger pool of advertisers, and Yahoo would have helped us get there faster. But we will get there with or without Yahoo. We have the right people, we’ve made incredible progress in our technology, and we’ll continue to make smart investments that will enable us to build an industry-leading business.

As I mentioned earlier, I have important organizational news. Today we are announcing that the Platforms and Services Division will be split into two businesses: Windows/Windows Live and Online Services. We are also announcing that Kevin Johnson will leave the company. He will work to ensure a smooth transition.

Since 1992, Kevin has been a key contributor to many of this company’s most important achievements. As president of the Platforms and Services Division, Kevin has built an incredibly talented organization and laid the foundation for the future success of Windows and our Online Services Business. Over the last 16 years, through everything from his work as head of the company’s worldwide sales, marketing, and services efforts, to his leadership in transforming our field operations and repositioning the company to focus on opportunities in emerging markets, Kevin has played a vital role in this company’s success. There is no doubt that his passion and dedication will be missed.

Effective immediately, Steven Sinofsky, Jon DeVaan, and Bill Veghte will report directly to me to lead Windows/Windows Live. In the Online Services Business, we will create a new senior leadership position and conduct a search that will span internal and external candidates. In the meantime, Satya Nadella will continue to lead Microsoft’s search, ad platform, and MSN engineering efforts, and Brian McAndrews will continue to lead the Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group. Both Windows/Windows Live and the Online Services Business are led by a strong group of executives on the technical and business side who have the talent and experience to address the challenges we face and drive the next generation of growth and success.

Looking ahead, I see an incredibly bright future for our company. As I said at the June 27th Town Hall for Bill, we are the best in the world at doing software and nobody should be confused about this. It doesn’t mean that we can’t improve, but nobody is better than we are. Nobody works harder than we do. Nobody is more tenacious than we are. We’re investing more broadly and more seriously than anybody else. Our opportunities to change the world have never been greater.

I look forward to working with all of you as we focus on our five priorities in FY09.

Steve

Latest Windows Slogan: Vista, Why Bother?

John Paczkowski — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:36:41 +0000

Microsoft appears to have finally come to terms with the idea that some Windows users will skip Vista altogether and run XP until Windows 7 arrives at market in 2011. Or 2014. Or two years after the next official release date Microsoft announces.

In a note to customers Monday, Bill Veghte, senior vice president of Microsoft’s Online Services and Windows Business Group, reiterated that Microsoft (MSFT) will send XP off to meet the great BSOD in the sky on June 30. But he said the company will continue to support XP with security and other critical updates until April 2014. 2014. That’s 13 years after XP was first released.

“With the June 30, 2008, ‘end of sales’ date for Windows XP approaching, many people have asked me if they will still be able to get support for Windows XP. The answer is an emphatic ‘Yes, you will continue to be supported,’” Veghte wrote. “Our ongoing support for Windows XP is the result of our recognition that people keep their Windows-based PCs for many years.”

Huh. Apparently, it has nothing to do with the paucity of enterprise customers who seem to prefer XP to Microsoft’s newer, Vista operating system. Or Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Lenovo (LNVGY) and Dell (DELL) offering customers who purchase Vista machines the chance to replace the OS with Windows XP Professional. Or the antipathy with which Vista’s viewed in the market.