Microsoft, EA expand executive suites

Last month, Microsoft announced it was losing Xbox marketing chief Peter Moore to EA Sports...and replacing him with former EA executive Don Mattrick. Today, the company announced it was hiring another ex-EA exec, John Schappert, to head its online gaming efforts in Xbox Live and Windows Live.

In 1994, Schappert founded Florida developer Tiburon Entertainment, which went on to become EA Tiburon, maker of the megapopular Madden NFL series and much less popular Superman Returns. At Microsoft, he will assume the all-new position of "corporate vice president of Live, software, and services." He will report to Mattrick, the senior vice president of Microsoft's still-unprofitable Interactive Entertainment Business, which includes the Xbox and Games for Windows units.

Meanwhile, back in Redwood City, California, EA today announced that it, too, has hired a new executive. The publisher has appointed Barry Cottle, former COO of Palm Computing's mobile content and wireless service divisions, as senior vice president and general manager of EA Mobile. EA Mobile is part of EA Casual--one of EA's four recently reorganized divisions--and was created after EA bought independent mobile-game developer Jamdat in late 2005.