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Microsoft splits Office duties

Steven Sinofsky's move to Windows spurs the company to divide Office development between two units, each with its own chief.

Ina Fried Former Staff writer, CNET News
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley.
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Ina Fried
With Steven Sinofsky moving to head Windows development, Microsoft has said it will split its Office development in two units and has named executives to head each one.

The Office Productivity Applications group which will be led by Antoine Leblond and will have responsibility for the Office client teams and shared services. The Office Business Platform group will be headed up by Kurt DelBene and will have responsibility for SharePoint, Groove and Project.

"As (Microsoft) considered the approaches to filling Steven's role as lead of Office development, they concluded that the organization would benefit from a slightly different model for Office engineering leadership moving forward," Microsoft said in a statement.

The Redmond, Wash.-based software maker announced in March that it was shifting Sinofsky to head development of its Windows operating system.

The decision to split his duties was announced internally earlier Wednesday by Microsoft Business Division President Jeff Raikes. DelBene and Leblond were not made available for comment.