Microsoft Creates New Entertainment Business Unit; Will Be Overseen By Bach, Headed By Lee ( sub.req

Microsoft follows its fall re-org with another change aimed at making the company more nimble: the creation of a Entertainment Business unit that will oversee music, TV and video. The new unit will be part of the entertainment and devices group headed by Robbie Bach, who announced the move via internal email; it will include MSN Music and the team from Microsoft Windows that handles relationships with labels, cable, programmers, and studios. More from Reuters
As it happens, I saw Bryan Lee, the division CFO who will head the new unit, at work in New York last week when he presented about Xbox 360 at UBS Media Week. (Here’s a transcript.) Peter Moore‘s role is expanding from lead marketing and content exec for Xbox 360 to head of the interactive entertainment business, also in Bach’s group. Xbox exec J Allard gets a promotion, too, and will coordinate strategy across Bach’s four units. (The others are mobile and consumer software/devices.)The FT describes his role as “responsibility for the platform technology across the digital entertainment group, making him key in Microsoft’s attempt to create a technological foundation for its broader digital home vision.”

Done right, this should make working with Microsoft on entertainment deals much less complex. The other day just hearing the list of places within Microsoft where an MTV Urge deal could be done made my head ache. This may be as close to one-stop dealmaking as Microsoft can get with entertainment.

Related: @ Media Week: Microsoft Estimates Xbox 360 Retail Value At $1.5 Billion-plus In First 90 Days

– Industry Moves: Microsoft Reorganizes Into Three Divisions: Xbox Guru Robbie Bach Gets Leading Role

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