Microsoft absorbs units into overall results

Microsoft said it would stop reporting separate results for its mobile and business applications software divisions – loss-making units that have been slow to fulfil the company’s hopes for long-term growth.

The software company said the changes reflected the completion of an internal reorganisation that has seen its business consolidated into three main operating arms, and echoed the way that the businesses were now managed internally.

Microsoft Business Solutions, which sells software applications for small and medium-sized businesses in competition with companies such as SAP and Oracle, has lost $185m on sales of $1.4bn over the past seven quarters and has already been through a management shake-up.

Starting with the fiscal year that began this month, the company said its results would be combined with the far larger Information Worker unit, which is based on the Office suite of desktop applications.

By also adding in the results of the Exchange e-mail server business, which had previously been reported as part of the server operations, the new combined unit, to be called Microsoft Business Division, will become the company’s largest single segment, eclipsing the Windows client business.

Meanwhile, results of the Mobile and Embedded Devices division, which has struggled to gain a foothold in the mobile handset business, will be absorbed into the home and entertainment division, which is based on the Xbox games console.