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Ballmer To Retire
Today Microsoft announced that CEO Steve Ballmer will be retiring within the next 12 months. He said, "There is never a perfect time for this type of transition, but now is the right time. ... My original thoughts on timing would have had my retirement happen in the middle of our company’s transformation to a devices and services company. We need a CEO who will be here longer term for this new direction." Ballmer, 57, has been Microsoft's CEO since taking over the role from Bill Gates in January, 2000. The company's board of directors has formed a committee to find a replacement for Ballmer, and he will continue his duties until a new CEO is found. Questions about Ballmer's fitness to remain CEO have been circulating for the past several years, particularly after the company struggled to get a foothold in the mobile market. It will be interesting to see how this affects Microsoft's stock price. Upon retirement, Ballmer will be able to cash out hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Microsoft stock.
He can't even retire properly, should have done so years ago.
Chairs just won't fly around the same without him
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
...in response, Microsoft's stock jumps up 10%
I'm so happy I could throw a chair!
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"There is never a perfect time for this type of transition ..." Yes there is. Too bad it was five years ago.
DaveyJJ
This may be the best thing that's happened to Microsoft in a long time. Perhaps they will get their clarity back again. I can't help but wonder if there's a deeper story here though, like his abysmal performance causing a backlash to force him out 'gracefully'.
"Microsoft says CEO Steve Ballmer will retire within 12 months. No successor named. Stock surges."
Captcha: finally
All the money that MS saves on broken chairs will go RIGHT TO YOU!
I love how he can state something as truth at the beginning of a sentence and then make a fool of himself by the end of it.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Failure of Windows 8
Failure of Xbox One
Failure of Vista
Failure of the Kin
Failure of the Zune
Failure of Windows Phone 7
Failure of Windows Phone 8
Need I go on? You can only fuck up so many times before the board sends you packing. I'm amazed he lasted this long.
The investors are so happy Ballmer is leaving that the stock is up 10%. Last time this happened was when Carly was fired from HP and the stock rose.
It is funny that the value of MSFT with Ballmer in it is $20 Billion less than MSFT without Ballmer in it!
http://slashdot.org/submission/1062723/Cheap-mobile-data-plan?art_pos=2
Is to just hire Sinofsky back and give him carte blanche to fire anyone and everyone who supported Ballmer as a job perk. With the chance to fire the woman who forced Metro on him as a job perk, they could probably get him more reasonable on the compensation package.
I only hope he is replaced with someone as ineffective as he was. The last thing the world needs is an evil monopolist running Microsoft who actually knows what he is doing.
Based on his overall personality, I strongly suspect that if Steve Ballmer hadn't just happened to be college buddies with BillG and Paul Allen, chances are pretty good he'd be selling used cars somewhere and enjoying the nearest football team. Instead, we're going to take him seriously for the rest of his natural life and possible beyond.
I am officially gone from
It's not that Microsoft is 'late to the party', it's simply that they make bad products.
Apple was late to the tablet party but ended up dominating it with pretty and functional products.
If they dig Steve Jobs up and put him in charge now, he'd do a better job than Ballmer ever did!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
There was a perfect time for the transition:
Avoiding those disastrous products would have made Microsoft billions, and those decisions were made by you, Ballmer.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
My prayers have been answered.
How so? Do you have a lot of Microsoft stock or you just hate the IT world and want it to suffer more years of monopoly abuse?
+7.12%.
Ballmer leaving is worth billions!
That's the first non-lame chair joke I heard in a long time.
I mean, his successor is the one that will get one, whoever he is just for not being Ballmer.
I think this "retirement" (which probably wasn't as voluntary as Ballmer and MS are pretending) spells doom for Metro, at least on the desktop. Virtually no one outside of MS actually likes it. The only reason why they haven't backed down on Metro on the desktop before now is that it is Ballmer's baby and he doesn't want to admit he screwed up. The next CEO will likely not have any such attachment, and will probably be much more willing to ditch Metro in response to market demands – or at least allow it to be an option that can be turned off completely, for a Win7-style experience.
Microsoft's foray into portable devices has been an abject failure. The smartest thing to do would be to focus on the business licenses that actually bring in the big bucks. That means stability, familiarity, and backwards compatibility – not flashy touch BS meant to appeal to non-technical home users.
The damage Mr. Ballmer has done to Microsoft in the past eight years is strategic and structural. His successor will have an enormous uphill battle to turn the company around.
This is bad news, having Ballmer in charge of MS is a good thing as he was slowly mismanaging the company into the ground. A successor could be more competent.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
It's not that Microsoft is 'late to the party', it's simply that they make bad products.
Apple was late to the tablet party but ended up dominating it with pretty and functional products.
As far as tablets go, Microsoft was there before Apple....they just did it wrong. It's kind of like Microsoft throws a party and nobody shows up. Then Apple throws a party, has the Rolling Stones there, and then everybody shows up. So Microsoft has another party with a Rolling Stones cover band and wonders why nobody is showing up.
Every once in awhile they come out with something good, but it's a few years too late...take the latest Zune. Too bad everybody was using their phones to play mp3s by that time.
How long until the Balmer movie is released?
Its a bit harsh to say the Xbox One has failed sure its had some bad press and the flip flopping on policies that has followed.
But its not out yet.
And its still sold out nearly everywhere like the PS4.
It would be fair to say it in 12 months time when he is leaving (whatever state it's in then)
or especially one not at the office...
Looks like the Captain of the Titanic is fleeing the sinking ship, after he turned the ship right into that iceberg.
And don't forget.......you can rearrange the letters in Steve Balmer to spell "Beer vat smell" -OR- "Tremble slave"
A lot of this I would say isn't Microsoft's fault for the failures. But other disruptive technologies forcing them to move faster then a company its size.
Apple in essence gave up Macs as their business model going to smaller devices.
the iPod only really loss its dominance after other companies started making Smart Phones, there was never an iPod killer, the iPod killer with the iPhone.
the iPhone in essence gave Apple a 2 year head start in the smart phone market, causing other companies to play catch-up including Microsoft. During this head start they were able to get a bunch of apps, and also push the iPad tablet market, giving an other year push.
Microsoft was working on their own future plans, but was disrupted by Apple, and all its other competitors following suit.
Microsoft is the Desktop Market. They were planning new and great things for the desktop, as seen with Windows 7, which really did shut Apple up in their I am a Mac and I am a PC adds. But their name is so connected to desktop it was a hard sell to reach out of it.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
This will be the best thing to happen to Microsoft in many years. Ballmer alienated customers, the public, the press, their employees, the enterprise and those who made their career out of Microsoft's products. 8.1's start button instead of start menu was the nail in the coffin for many, many people from a sheer contempt standpoint. Getting rid of technet and a hundred other things that showed their customers were viewed with contempt as the the enemy can all be cited as examples of why he had to go.
It's easy to cherry pick. Watch, I can do it too-
Success of Windows 7
Success of Windows Server
Success of SQL Server
Success of Azure
Success of XBOX 360
Success of XBOX Live
Success of Office 365
Success of Lync
Success of SharePoint
Looky here, my list is longer than yours.
Success of SharePoint?
Really? I thought it was dieing out now that most had figured out it really cannot be managed by non-IT folks. Which is how they sold it. Office 365 is a little early to call a success and I bet it will be a long time before it is in the enterprise. Azure is again too early to call, but looks good. If MS could deal with losing a little bit of the desktop market all this stuff could have been much better. Sharepoint for example should not be such a PITA for folks not running windows and IE. That would have helped a lot. Windows Server is doing that now, finally coming around to headless operation and an ok if not great shell. All those things are not Windowsy but those markets demand it.
There is a rumor going around that Elon is kinda busy right now, so I doubt that would happen. As a thought experiment, he would probably move MS headquarters to the moon.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
I mean, they would like to mirror Apples success. There is a certain part of me that wonders if Bill gates might be planning to come back in a the style of Steve Jobs. It would be very very tacky, but taste is not the MS strong suit.
Windows 7 (lost market share to Apple OS X)
Windows Server (lost market share to Linux)
SQL Server (lost market share to a variety of competitors)
Azure (new product, but not market leader)
XBox 360 (red ring of death and years of losses due to those hardware failures)
XBox Live +1 here for a legit success
Office 365 (jury is out)
Lync (New name for communicator. Not sure that this makes MS extra money or is a real success. I don't know that this has mass adoption)
SharePoint (I wouldn't remotely call this a success)
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
He needs 12 months because his retirement is behind schedule. And of course, just days after his retirement, he will have to download all the new retirement patches and Retirement Service Pack 2.0.
No. He has 12 months left on his Windows Phone contract. Days after retirement he will get an iPhone 5S.
Lots of Balmer-bashing here. (not surprising)
I forget exactly where Microsoft was when Balmer took over. Did they even have windows phone out? Was it still in the XP days or had Vista come out? Given the state of things, what should he have done differently?
A better question: where should Microsoft go now? They have a shrinking desktop market. Nobody seems to be buying either their phones or their tablets. They bought Skype, making them more or less the dominant player in VOIP services. The Xbox One pre-launch has been a mess. But Xbox is hugely popular, and people happily fork over $50 a year to subscribe to Xbox Live Gold. Where would you take Microsoft from here?
How so? Do you have a lot of Microsoft stock or you just hate the IT world and want it to suffer more years of monopoly abuse?
Its amazing that people still talk about Microsoft being a monopoly. The boogeyman of the late 90's and early 2000's is long gone.
Markets Microsoft currently controls:
Markets Microsoft currently fights for control:
Markets either Microsoft lost or cant put a dent into:
The monopoly just doesn't exist anymore The government stepped in over the monopoly and forced their hand. So Microsoft entered markets that already existed and their products either flopped or fight for market share. The markets they did control like Web Browser saw increased competition and eventually Microsoft lost their grip which forced them to heavily improve Internet Explorer while continuing to lose market share. And the markets they still own they own because well the competition cant seem to put a dent into the market.
Questions about Ballmer's fitness to remain CEO have been circulating for the past several years, particularly after the company struggled to keep a foothold in the mobile market.
LMFTFY. MS had Windows Mobile and Windows Tablets before the iPhone and iPad. They were uninspired and sometimes buggy translations of the Windows paradigm. MS had only lately realized that these devices need a different experience than Windows. However Ballmer still considers an iPad as a crippled PC. Well that crippled PC outsells PCs in some quarters making Apple the #1 PC seller. A key difference is that Apple is making tons of profit on it unlike the OEMs which make tiny margins on their PCs.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
This is bad news, having Ballmer in charge of MS is a good thing as he was slowly mismanaging the company into the ground. A successor could be more competent.
Note that the same guys who put Ballmer in charge will be picking his successor. We might not have anything to worry about. ;-)
Well, the board have not been happy with him for years, but he was Bill's BFF so there was little the board could do. I gather Bill or his foundation still control a sizable investment portfolio in MSFT. Perhaps they'll grow some spines and fight for a better leader, not yet-another-BFF-of-Bill.
fast forward to mid-2014: Melinda chose him, she liked his hair and the color of his eyes.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
.... and on another note Microsoft stock skyrocketed on news of Balmers's retirement but quickly plummeted on news that John Sculley was going to take over and start a new line of soft drinks called Micro-Cola
"TV, a medium as it is neither rare nor well done." Ernie Kovacs
And that is totally MS's fault. They still don't get it. If they did, they would remove all DRM from Windows. That includes the whole product key and activation nonsense they continue to harass all users with, legitimate and otherwise.
There was a day when MS was cool. They broke the early Office software monopolies, software such as Word Perfect. They reduced Apple and their MacIntosh to a small niche market. MacIntoshes were more user friendy, but MS-DOS on a PC was way, way cheaper. MS didn't rest on their laurels either, they rolled out Windows to challenge the Macs. Then in the 1990s, MS started to slip. MS's slowness gave IBM a chance to grab back the OS crown with OS/2. Lucky for MS, IBM blew it. MS also nearly got the Internet wrong. Remember that at first they pooh-poohed browsers. They came to their senses in time, barely. Windows 95 was very nearly too late. In the early 2000s, even the anti-trust conviction didn't much damage the MS brand. People still believed MS knew tech.
But now? MS has made many mistakes, but I could hardly believe it some years back when MS signed onto the RIAA and MPAA position on DRM. One might expect entertainment organizations to fail to understand that DRM is a bad idea, but a tech company? MS should have been savvier than that. Instead, they happily poodled to the RIAA! Let the entertainment industry do their thinking for them! They should have been educating the entertainment giants, not the other way around. It was a terrible show of incompetence and anti-customer positioning. Having backed themselves into a corner on DRM, they then turned to their customers and compounded the mistake, trying to sell us on the idea that DRM is good for us, talking down to us most insultingly. DRM helps stop us from being naughty pirates, and that's why it's good for us, right? Windows Genuine Advantage, ha ha! MS treated those moronic entertainment moguls like they really know stuff, and then treated their customers, many of whom are quite tech savvy, like a pack of adolescents who would try to sneak a few beers if they weren't carded all the time. They further magified the disaster by then insisting that Vista was doing very well. MS lost a great deal of credibilty.
It is only sheer size and inertia that has allowed MS to survive such bad blunders. I don't know how much more blundering MS can tolerate. Quite a bit, I suppose. Will they pick a decent CEO? There any reason to think they will pick a winner there?
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
As long as most printers and wireless cards and such are windows-only, as long as people send you docx files, as long as there are non-standard behaviors in MSIE that have to be tested for, as long as netflix uses silverlight... the windows monopoly still causes the linux user some annoyance in every day life.
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Days after retirement he will get an iPhone 5S
I pity the fool.
I've had a iPhone 5 (company phone) for a few weeks now. Not at all impressed. I eagerly await my Windows 8x Nokia 928 today (personal phone).
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
Throwing chairs on stage while chanting: Retiring, Retiring, Retiring, Retiring, Retiring, Retiring, Retiring...
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
Perhaps they'll grow some spines and fight for a better leader, not yet-another-BFF-of-Bill.
Unfortunately for them, a significant number of senior leadership figures at Microsoft who might have been credible candidates have instead left the company in recent years. Conspiracy theories notwithstanding, that limits the talent pool from in-house.
It will be interesting to see whether they can attract someone good from outside. Big tech firms don't seem to have a great track record in that respect lately, though perhaps that perception is partly because we hear about the spectacular failures at places like HP but modest success stories go mostly unreported.
Either way, MS still has an effective monopoly on desktops, a significant presence in business server rooms, a substantial war chest, and a lot of smart people. Someone with a better vision for how to use those assets than "It's like Apple but for people who didn't buy Apple yet" might do well there.
I've suggested previously, even before the post-Snowden cloud/privacy concerns, that Microsoft could be in a very strong position if they swam across the current a little and promoted private clouds. It looks like a much more natural fit for their portfolio and expertise, it plays on competitors' weaknesses, and it plays to their strengths as an established provider on both client and server ends for business. It even gives them a potential way into the mobile market, via consumer-friendly devices with integral BYOD features for those who also want to use them for business but don't want to hand over the root password to corporate sysadmins. Any takers? :-)
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
A lot of this I would say isn't Microsoft's fault for the failures.
I'm not sure I'd forgive them for anything really, but one thing really stands out - it's Windows 8.
Windows is MS's core product - the one thing they really don't want to screw up. They've already had a misstep with Vista, so they know how important it is right? And Windows 7 has been well received across the board and has proven itself to be a solid product - even here people don't really slag it off! And yet, unbelievably, MS still managed to screw this one up with Windows 8.
Windows 8 seems to be the same solid OS that Windows 7 was, with further refinements/improvements. And then totally messed up with the Metro UI. And whilst I appreciate what they were *trying* to do by unifying their new and legacy interfaces, they should've realised it wasn't working before Win8 was released. And once they'd made that mistake, they should've better resolved it for 8.1 - but they've failed once again.
So whilst I could go through the entire portfolio of train-wrecks, it seems unnecessary - just look at Windows 8 to see how MS almost seem to deliberately trip themselves up.
One bright spot is Apple blatantly ripping off Metro for iOS 7
You couldn't be more wrong and ignorant if you tried.
Just because they both dropped 3D bevels does not make them the same.
iOS does not have clipped areas like Metro, and has multiple layers of depth totally UNLIKE metro.
What's sad is most of the world thinks as you do and has no idea what is to come.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It's interesting seeing the Slashdot comments because they are actually less negative than those of the press.
From a May 12, 2013 article in Forbes: Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, "Should Have Already Been Fired." Quote from the article: "Without a doubt, Mr. Ballmer is the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today."
More about Steve Ballmer from that article: "The reach of his bad leadership has extended far beyond Microsoft when it comes to destroying shareholder value -- and jobs."
Scroll down in this article to see Businessweek's January 16, 2013 cover that called Steve Ballmer "Monkey Boy". The cover says "No More", but that doesn't take away from the fact that the magazine called him Monkey Boy -- on its cover. That's the greatest disrespect for a CEO I've ever seen.