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Does Ballmer Need To Go?
Pickens notes a TechCrunch analysis wondering — after Windows Vista and the failed Yahoo bid — whether Steve Ballmer's days at Microsoft are numbered. "Ballmer has been the big driver behind [the Yahoo] deal at Microsoft — some would say to the point of obsession. After the disaster that has been Windows Vista, Ballmer may have realized he needed to redeem himself in the eyes of Microsoft's board. And the 'transformative' deal with Yahoo was the way he was going to do it... If Microsoft's board loses patience with him, it might have to ask Bill Gates to temporarily come back as CEO until it finds a replacement. After all, Ballmer has already made a strong and convincing case for why Microsoft needs Yahoo to make its online and advertising strategy work. It's not clear whether Microsoft can achieve its objectives on its own or through other acquisitions. Maybe Ballmer thinks he can still do the deal by making Yahoo's stock price collapse and come back with a hostile offer."
And, the slowest moving company award goes to.......
How we know is more important than what we know.
The fastest moving chair in a company award goes to...
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
YES...YES...YES...!!!!
Microsoft dropped the Ballmer.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
Developers developers developers developers.
There, I said it.
God that's such a stupid catchy song.
Careful now, this is Slashdot remember. Reasoned commenting about Microsoft is a rare thing. Vista is, of course, a disaster. Mainly because it's not Linux, the massive open source success just waiting to break into the mainstream...
If you think Bill Gates is the "chair"man, you must be new here...
How long has he been in the car?
I'm not pulling over ten minutes after we leave the Denny's and if he touches his sister one more time I'm going to turn this car around and we won't go back to Disneyland until next year.
The open source community should support Ballmer. He's been our best evangelist for almost a decade.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
"crappy binary blob formats."
..i wonder if they have NIC cards in ATM machines... .... Just f'in w/ ya
Speaking of that..
If he stays there will be trou-ble
If he goes the stock will double.
Anyone who's seen that windows 1.0 sales video will probably get the same vibe. He just feels sleazy.
That's probably why he went so far.
He's like the Dick Cheney of Microsoft.
They're using their grammar skills there.
- Headcount has increased from 35,000 to 80,000 Chair count has fluctuated wildly and now stands at 52,000.
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
that would be hilarious! They could put him in charge of a division called 'Boogle' where they all dance like monkeys and play musical chairs!
which is totally what she said
Only one man can save Microsoft now. But where is Gil Amelio when they really need him?
'"Uh uh, Bill. Iraq has the fifth largest army in the world"
Yeah, but there's a hell of a big drop off after the third. The Hari Krishna's have the fourth largest army and they already own half our airports.'
The man is so obviously bad for MS that the only thing worth doing is to keep him on. I would even go as far as to say promote him, but I don't think that is possible any more.
A man with such vision should have much more day to day control over how projects go, for the good of us all. Without Me II, I would never have moved to Ubuntu full time, and I credit Ballmer for a large part of that.
The man is a genius, and we will sing his praises for years. Keep up the good work Stevie.
-Charlie
That was a very good post. Spot on analysis, beautiful understanding of the situation with added insight into what really happened. Plus, riddled with spelling mistakes that would make any slashdot editor proud.
I believe this post will be the one I get nostalgic about when I reminisce in the work camp while the robotic overseers aren't looking.
Good GOD! Clearly Ballmer is responsible not just for Microsoft's downfall, but for a slump in the ENTIRE COMPUTER INDUSTRY! Burn him! BURN HIM!
Running mate for McCain? following in the Dick Cheney tradition of dark lord of the underworld?
Take over for Castro in Cuba?
Still time for a new manager of the Olympic Games in China. (or compete in the 500m chair toss.)
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
best chance to use 'defenestrated' in a headline ever. Save that for when he actually *does* leave the company!
Cheers,
Matt