Microsoft to name new UK head
Redmond appoints UK chief eight months after position first fell vacant
Microsoft is on the verge of naming a new UK chief, eight months after the position first fell vacant.
The vendor is also preparing to retaliate against the European Commission (EC), which imposed a massive fine on Microsoft last week.
Despite the software giant remaining tight-lipped about the appointment, industry sources have said the two most likely candidates are Gordon Smillie, group director and general manager enterprise and partner group at Microsoft, and Alistair Baker, group director small and mid-market solutions and partners.
In July Microsoft appointed its former UK managing director, Neil Holloway, to the position of vice president of sales, marketing and services for EMEA.
Ross Miller, managing director of Microsoft Large Account Reseller Trustmarque Solutions, said it is essential that Microsoft gets a country leader in place.
"Any organisation needs a leader, and especially Microsoft, if you consider the number of things it is doing and the new marketplaces it is moving into," he said.
One thing keeping the software giant busy is its battle with the EC over anti-trust issues. Microsoft is currently looking to get a suspension of the EC ruling that hit the company with a £333m fine, pending a full appeal.
The EC said Microsoft broke the law "by leveraging its near-monopoly in the market for PC operating systems onto the markets for work group servers and for media players".
Brad Smith, general counsel and corporate secretary at Microsoft, said its biggest concerns are the requirement to produce a version of Windows without Windows Media Player and to reveal code to competitors.
Analysts have said the case could take years to wrap up. Nigel Montgomery, research director at AMR Research, told CRN: "Users have just got used to this sort of thing and it makes no difference in the long term."