Steve Berkowitz, once billed as a saviour for Microsoft’s internet business, has made little impact since he arrived two years ago, so it’s not surprising that he now looks to be on the way out. It seems that bringing in senior outside talent, something Microsoft has shown itself increasingly willing to do, has not always gone smoothly.

CNET is reporting that Berkowitz, once the head of Ask.com, is going as part of a reorganisation that will also involve the departure of Mike Sievert, a former AT&T executive. We can’t confirm all the details of that report, but the conversations we’ve had suggest that Berkowitz won’t be around too much longer.

A consumer marketing expert who really made his name in the publishing industry with the "For Dummies" series of self-help books, Berkowitz was meant to bring a dose of marketing and brand-building pizazz to Microsoft’s floundering online operations.

It looked like a tall order from the start. When we met him several months into his assignment he was already sounding frustrated at trying to bring order to a messy portfolio that mixed pure online brands like MSN and Live with older names like Windows and Office - not to mention navigating the Redmond bureaucracy. Maybe one day soon all those branding nightmares will be over and it will all just be called Yahoo.

February 6th, 2008 in Internet | Permalink