FOLLOW US

Microsoft co-founder suggests company break up

Jamie Feltham
November 6, 2013

Microsoft is in an interesting position right now as its hunt for a CEO continues. But one iconic figure from the company’s past, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, is suggesting that his company remove some of its parts.

According to the Financial Times, Allen, who helped found the company all the way back in 1975, believes that company should get rid of come divisions. This includes the search advertising and Xbox divisions, which he believes to be distractions. All of this was said on behalf of Allen by Paul Ghaffari, who manages the exec’s $15 billion fortune.

“The search business and even Xbox, which has been a very successful product, are detracting from that. We would want them to focus on their best competencies,” Ghaffari said. “My view is there are some parts of that operation they should probably spin out, get rid of, to focus on the enterprise and focus on the cloud.”

That’s a pretty dramatic move, although not the first time we’ve heard about Microsoft ditching such sections. Xbox gets a huge focus from the company right now, especially in the build up to the launch of the Xbox One.

Source: Financial Times

About the Author

Jamie Feltham

Videogamer, music listener, squash player, exerciser, technology journalister. Multimedia journalism graduate, writing for the What Mobile mag and website

Share this article