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Ballmer Threatens To Pull Out of the US

theodp writes "Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is threatening to move Microsoft employees offshore if Congress enacts President Obama's plans to curb tax avoidance by US corporations. 'It makes US jobs more expensive,' complained billionaire Ballmer. 'We're better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the US as opposed to keeping them inside the US.' According to 2006 reports, Microsoft transferred $16 billion in assets to secretive Dublin subsidiaries to shave billions off its US tax bill. 'Corporate tax is part of the overall advantage of doing business in Ireland,' acknowledged Ballmer in 2005. 'It would be disingenuous to say otherwise.'"

5 of 1,142 comments (clear)

  1. Ballmer Threatens To Pull Out of the US by falconwolf · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    And I'm threatening to move to Linux.

    I already moved from MS and Windows to Linux, OS X, and FOOS.

    Falcon

  2. Re:Sure, move out. by fbjon · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    How so? If a criminal threatens me with a gun and wants my wallet, what the hell would I do with a gun of my own? Carry a knife if you want self defense. Carry a gun if you want to escalate violence.

    --
    True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
  3. Off-topic... by BrokenHalo · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    ...but becoming more relevant to /. in general:

    I've become more less familiar with the white-on-white titlebars for posts, but a new feature I seem to be getting is this sort of grey widget-like hoverbar that doesn't seem to do anything. Or is that just me?

    Fortunately, it appears to be fixable in the same way, by clicking "change" at the top (without setting new thresholds), but perhaps it's a symptom of entropy setting in...

  4. Re:Capitalist flight by owndao · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I was truly excited when Obama won the presidency. Unfortunately, it seems that every thing that he talked about before the election (and after, as well) has been implemented as "compromises" that border on travesty. I am disabled, unemployed, living off of my social security "investment" and was so looking forward to the one provider, no pay health care as is available in many capable countries but it looks like this is going to end up being mandatory health insurance, possibly without a government option. What the f***!? Fatalistically, I would say that closing the off-shore tax shelter scam will be a half-assed "compromise". If our elected representatives and leaders can't pull together on something humane like universal healthcare that saves money, lives, time, reduces complexity then they are laughing at removing tax opt-outs for the obscenely money loving companies. Sorry to rant. I just read the news.

    --
    Be as you would have the world become.
  5. Re:And I'm threatening.. by jftitan · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I haven't changed my desktop from Vista to Linux yet, because I might return my laptop.

        Ahhh... beat that argument. (I still have 3 weeks left on my 30-day return policy)

    But seriously... I love my usb ubuntu. Its customized with everything I need when I'm without a computer and need necessary applications. I use mozilla, and openoffice on my ubuntu and windows machines because I can sync the data, bookmarks, etc.

    I just have to make sure not to lose the memory key.

    --
    "Don't Forget to Salt the Fries"