Good Morning Silicon Valley

Microsoft shook up its executive ranks today, and the shaking was so vigorous that some of the brass were knocked right out of the company. Gone is Pieter Knook, longtime head of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile division, who will make a seamless transition to Vodafone and lead a new Internet Services division. His replacement is expected to be another Microsoft veteran, Andrew Lees, currently with the company’s server and tools group. As Dan Frommer says, “Lees has his work cut out: Figure out how to integrate mobile software firm Danger, which Microsoft purchased this week, figure out how to make Windows Mobile a more attractive platform in an increasingly crowded field, and potentially figure out how to shoe-horn Yahoo’s thriving mobile business under the Microsoft umbrella.”

Also heading out are Senior Vice President Steven Berkowitz, the former Ask.com CEO who had been heading Microsoft’s online services unit, and Mike Sievert, the former AT&T Wireless exec hired to run Windows marketing. Sievert says he had decided over the holidays to go start his own company and was persuaded to hold off until the broader reshuffling.