Senior development staff of Microsoft Corp’s Microsoft Network are quietly exiting the on-line service to form a new company, according to Infoworld. Many of the staff of the network’s Systems group – including chief technical officer Naveen Jain, chief architect Jeff Lill, and 10 other developers – will be leaving Microsoft to found OpenSpace Inc, a company that will sell Internet query tools designed to connect buyers and sellers, the paper said. The news comes as Microsoft’s on-line network struggles with an about-turn following the widely unexpected popularity of the Internet. Until a year ago, it was expected by many in the industry that on-line consumers would access proprietary on-line services such as America Online Inc, CompuServe Inc and the now defunct Apple Computer Inc eWorld. However, the popularity and flexibility of the Internet has taken most on-line services by surprise, and those newer ones like the Microsoft Network do not have the strength of a large installed base of subscriptions to fall back on. Jain, Lill and the rest of Microsoft’s former employees are believed to be bailing out following Microsoft’s decision two weeks ago to merge Microsoft Network workgroups into new divisions responsible separately for Internet and interactive media. Microsoft responded by claiming the renegades may have broken their contracts by luring other employees and taking intellectual property with them.
