Microsoft Corp has restructured itself in an effort to keep down costs and prepare for new opportunities in such fields as interactive multimedia: it is being reorganised into seven product divisions and three sales divisions as well as a number of central divisions such as service and order fulfillment; there will be no job reductions but the company aims to hold down the growth in employment; the restructuring is also aimed at improving global marketing of products; among the new divisions is an on-line services unit in the company’s Advanced Technology group, which has been spending $100m a year to research and develop opportunities in emerging markets; the sales force is being reorganised by customer category rather than by product, the customer categories are end users, organisations of any size, and personal computer makers.
