Microsoft CFO Quits

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Posted by timothy on Sunday April 21, 2013 @09:02PM from the extended-family-is-a-new-twist-on-the-old-lie dept.

McGruber writes "NBC News is reporting that Microsoft's Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein is leaving the company to spend time with his extended family, as Microsoft 'struggles with sharply declining personal computer sales and a lukewarm reception for its new Windows 8 operating system.' Klein is the latest in a line of top-level executives to leave the company, following Windows head Steven Sinofsky last November."

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Come on CEO... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-21 21:07 · Score: 5, Insightful

do the right thing.
1. Re:Come on CEO... by Taco+Cowboy · 2013-04-21 21:51 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Ballmer is not the problem --- that guy is only PART of a very BIG problem
  
  --
  Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
2. Re:Come on CEO... by peragrin · 2013-04-21 22:15 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  why? I think Ballmer is doing a fantastic job and he should keep up the hard chair throwing work.
  Because for every chair thrown another bad quarter for MSFT happens.
  
  --
  i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
3. Re:Come on CEO... by poetmatt · 2013-04-21 23:04 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  he represents the problem, and he's also responsible for the company *as* CEO. So either he fixes the problem or he is the problem.
4. Re:Come on CEO... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-04-21 23:06 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Have you ever SEEN Ballmer? I have talked to him in person once and have seen a talk (incoherent rant) by him once. He is the bigges problem they have at MS. They have others but he is by far the biggest. He has the same reality distortion field Jobs had, but it affects only him.
5. Re:Come on CEO... by nojayuk · 2013-04-22 00:59 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Steve Ballmer has been in a senior position at MicroSoft for about thirty years now, unlike the typical bungee boss CEOs and board members of various other high-tech corporations such as HP (remember Carly?). During the time he's been working there MS total turnover has been about half a trillion bucks. I'd say US high-tech businesses could use some more chair-throwers like Ballmer and fewer wily super-geniuses like Fiorina.
6. Re:Come on CEO... by nojayuk · 2013-04-22 01:50 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  "Saying that the Ballmer is no worse than Fiorini is no reason to keep Ballmer - there are far better alternatives around."
  Such as? Who's available, with the sort of deep knowledge of where MS came from, where it is today and where it is going tomorrow and who can step in and make MS even better than it is today with minimal disruption to the financial bottom line? Hmmm, tricky...
  Some day MS is going to have to cope without Steve B., hopefully not in the same way that Apple is handling the loss of Steve Jobs but that day isn't here yet. I find the idea that Ballmer is some kind of liability to MS quite amusing considering what would/will happen to the business if/when he does leave.
7. Re:Come on CEO... by Archangel+Michael · 2013-04-22 02:44 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Interestingly Microsoft is starting to realize, too late, that it has been a "Windows(TM)" company, and not a technology company. The fact that they tried to tie everything to Windows(TM), is the problem. Replace Windows(TM) (with say .. Android or iOS) and all of a sudden, your whole core is gone and all the supporting products are worth less. And that is what is happening. People are realizing that you don't need Windows(TM) to get stuff done. And in fact, you don't need Windows(TM) most of the time.
  And since people are realizing this, they are exploring other options.The days of being able to sell Windows 95 for $150 and have people line up around the block have long since been over. The Windows ship has sailed.
  
  --
  Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
hardly cause for concern by Sadsfae · 2013-04-21 21:12 · Score: 5, Insightful

It'd be bigger news if he quit for another company, while Microsoft is on the decline it's going to be a very slow death spread across
a decade or two. They've still got considerable assets which will take a long time to bleed out.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=msft+balance+sheet&annual

--
Have a squat over at the hobo house.
1. Re:hardly cause for concern by Raumkraut · 2013-04-21 22:16 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  IANAA, but there's "creative accounting", and then there's fraud. One is perfectly legal, the other not. It's like the difference between "tax avoidance" and "tax evasion".
  The thing with creative accounting is not that it hides or creates money from nothing (which would be fraud), but that it moves it around from other places/times. If you see a really good quarter now, it's possibly because some income has been moved from elsewhen. So it might be expected for the next few fiscal quarters to be more disappointing.
  The old guy gets to leave on a high, and the new guy gets to "improve" the company's financials after an initial few bad quarters. It's an accountancy win-win.
2. Re:hardly cause for concern by erroneus · 2013-04-22 00:06 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Unhealthy... where to begin?!
  Sure, it's a nice arrangement when the success of the PC industry is the success of Microsoft. But how healthy is it when the failure of Microsoft is the death of the PC industry??? The influence that a software maker has over the hardware industries is VERY unhealthy.
Why? by Pino+Grigio · 2013-04-21 21:48 · Score: 5, Insightful

It's a mystery to me why extremely rich men like Balmer continue with the daily drudgery of running a business like Microsoft. Personally I'd buy a huge yacht (inc. surface to air missiles) and sail around the world with a harem of supermodel concubines. For the rest of my natural life...
1. Re:Why? by robnelle · 2013-04-21 21:55 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  It's a mystery to me why extremely rich men like Balmer continue with the daily drudgery of running a business like Microsoft. Personally I'd buy a huge yacht (inc. surface to air missiles) and sail around the world with a harem of supermodel concubines. For the rest of my natural life...
  For some people it's not necessarily about just the money, it's about the power. Controlling one of the biggest and most ubiquitous companies in the world = a lot of power.
Orderly succession by MrMickS · 2013-04-21 23:38 · Score: 5, Insightful

There's nothing really to see here. He's been CFO for over three years, been at the company for much longer. Why not cash in on his various options and enjoy his life?
The doom and gloom about Microsoft on here is all wishful thinking. PC Windows is on a decline in the marketplace and has been since the the iPhone/iPad changed the game. Android has accelerated this by making smart touch devices available at a lower price point. Microsoft are aware of this, the speed of change has caught them out and they are going to stumble a little before they make the right move.
In the long run Office will survive because its a standard, nothing else can claim this. Office 365 gives them the ability to make money from Office without owning the OS. This is the future of Microsoft. Google may have been doing this longer but Office is Office.
Cloud computing/storage is going to be a big money earner going forward. Microsoft have positioned themselves for this. Going forward they would rather provide Windows servers using Azure than sell the OS. As unit sales of Windows server decline, look to Microsoft aggressively market and price Azure as an alternative. Especially in the SME space. Why run your own servers when you can get a reliable DR capable cloud solution from Microsoft. This is where the market is heading.
Xbox Live. The next Xbox is going to be a money earner. They are currently making money with the current service. The new one should come in at a reasonable price and allow them to continue this. It will also leverage cloud based services.
Consumer Windows is the bad news. This will move to become a phone/tablet OS which is where the consumer market is going. The chances are that they will come good, they have a lot of smart people working there.
Oh, and before the accusations start I'm not a Microsoft shill. I've never bought a computer that runs Windows. I just like to look at things a little more realistically. I still expect to get modded down because that's what happens on Slashdot.

--
You may think me a tired, old, cynic. I'd have to disagree about the tired bit.
Re:They didn't make him the CFO for nothing! by gtall · 2013-04-22 00:48 · Score: 4, Insightful

No dick. The start button removal was a collective decision to use the only strategy MS knows: use the desktop monopoly to force their way into a mobile monopoly. If they could get punters to actually like Metro, then they'd like to see it on their mobiles as well...errr....or something....
Re:Micro$oft by devent · 2013-04-22 01:20 · Score: 4, Insightful

I can agree to that. I don't really care if Microsoft can create record profits. I do care that I can install Linux now on almost every hardware and it will work. I do care about LibreOffice and open standards so that I can exchange documents freely. I do care about an open web.
With this for me important aspects of the software industry increasing year after year I couldn't be happier. 15 years ego it was all looking very dim for open source software and free standards. 15 years ego if you didn't used Windows you couldn't do any work and the IE and Microsoft Word and Excel was the "standard".
So yes, high fives everyone.

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