Microsoft announced a sweeping corporate reorganization Thursday that attempts to pull the firm into a better position to compete more fiercely with Apple and Google.
Under the new structure, called "One Microsoft," Microsoft will have half as many major divisions — four instead of eight. Instead of having separate teams in charge of developing software for tablets, laptops and smartphones, all of those developers will now report to the same person.
The realignment "will enable us to innovate with greater speed, efficiency and capability in a fast changing world," chief executive Steve Ballmer said in a company-wide memo Thursday. "We are rallying behind a single strategy as one company — not a collection of divisional strategies."
The old structure prevented the firm from quickly reacting to developments in the tech world, analysts said.