[mcarlin]

>especially considering that Microsoft can significantly reduce expenditures by integrating the company into the web group

This is a business truth generally, but Microsoft has proved a very strong exception. Historically their attempts to integrate their web and communications acquisitions into the web group (or at least the Microsoft frameworks) have resulted in stagnation and/or collapse. Whatever they gained in operating costs, they lost many times over in value.

Hotmail, Mesh, TellMe, Groove, Colloquis, and Danger all experienced terrible stagnation as they integrated into Microsoft. Yes, even Hotmail, which has never recovered as a brand from the three or four year period where they moved from unix to windows servers, producing no new features and allowing Gmail to gain rapid traction.