On Wednesday, Microsoft announced that Kevin Johnson (47), the man in charge with the entire Yahoo Inc. acquisition operation, was to leave the company and start his new job as chief executive at Juniper.

Basically at the same time with Kevin Johnson’s departure, Microsoft decided to reorganize the Platform Services division, formerly run by Mr. Johnson; the division is to be divided into two departments: Windows / Windows Live and Online Services.

It seems Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer is not at all satisfied with the results Microsoft's online business has recorded lately. Although so far, the company has invested billion of dollars in online services, it has managed to fall way behind some of its competitors, most notably - Google. The new administrative move is expected to improve the situation. 

Kevin Johnson however seems to be in a different state of mind; he said he was delighted to be joining Juniper and hopeful that his experience would help Juniper provide its customers, partners, employees and shareholders with "great value."

He used to be part of Microsoft’s team, when the company attempted to buy Yahoo. At the beginning of May, the former decided to drop its $42.3 billion offer. The issue came to an end after about three months of continuous negotiations; during this time, the companies failed to reach an understanding, although some say they came quite close to it at a certain point.

When everything was set, Steve Ballmer didn’t seem very concerned of what was ahead; he showed great confidence in the company’s talented team and the compelling plan to develop its business through "innovative new services and strategic transactions with other business partners." He went on to say that although Yahoo would have accelerated the company’s strategy, Microsoft would continue to move forward.