Microsoft (MSFT) is about to give its Web portal MSN a big re-design, BoomTown reports.

It's a retrenchment, mainly.

“It’s a decision to make it so MSN does less better,” one source told BoomTown.

“So there will be a focus of attention on a smaller number of categories in which we can be either #1 or #2 in, rather than #4 or #5.”

There will be a greater emphasis on News, Sports, Finance, Lifestyle and Entertainment offerings.

Not surprisingly, those are verticals MSN media boss Scott Moore had a lot of success with when he ran the Yahoo Media Group until late last year.

Part of the redesign will be aimed at integrating Bing more tightly into the MSN user-experience.