Ballmer To Retire

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Posted by ryuzaki0 on Friday August 23, 2013 @01:30AM from the flying-chair-alert-level-green dept.

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.

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In the next 12 months... by ackthpt · 2013-08-23 01:31 · Score: 5, Funny

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
1. Re:In the next 12 months... by Stuarticus · 2013-08-23 01:32 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I hear that Dell are organising a 21 chair salute.
  
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  If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
2. Re:In the next 12 months... by NeoTron · 2013-08-23 02:09 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  The next guy will throw developers at chairs.
3. Re:In the next 12 months... by OakDragon · 2013-08-23 02:50 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  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.
  
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  Dark Reflection
Good news for stockholders by neurovish · 2013-08-23 01:32 · Score: 5, Funny

...in response, Microsoft's stock jumps up 10%
1. Re:Good news for stockholders by halfEvilTech · 2013-08-23 01:32 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Actually opened $2.78 up or about 8.7% so yea basically
2. Re:Good news for stockholders by gstoddart · 2013-08-23 01:48 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  ....I swear I didn't look up the stock quote before posting. Microsoft is really up 8.5% right now.
  Good guess, but I think you mostly mirrored what a lot of people think -- that clearly Ballmer hasn't fully understood the market in some places, and that Microsoft has had some misses lately.
  Those are the kinds of things that, while not personally responsible for every detail, Ballmer as CEO gets to 'own' and take the blame for.
  Microsoft may or may not fare better without Ballmer, but if the market watchers are looking at things which could bring Microsoft out of these doldrums, then the perception that his departure could change is bound to lift the stock.
  Of course, this being the stock market, everybody is going to be buying and selling now based on what they think will be happening in 12 months or more from now -- and in 12 months, they'll be doing it based on something totally unrelated to this.
  I will be interested to see if the next CEO is so arrogantly out of touch with what people want, or will continue with the standard party line of "we can do no wrong and people really want these things" even when nobody is buying them.
  
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  Lost at C:>. Found at C.
3. Re:Good news for stockholders by RogueyWon · 2013-08-23 02:29 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I think the next CEO has a few big challenges on his hands. I'd highlight three in particular:
  First, he needs to get the company out of the mindset that has it still behaving as though it commands monopoly power. It doesn't, or at least, it doesn't in many of the markets where it now needs to compete. It found that out with with the XBox One launch, where it thought that it had the power to force customers to accept things they didn't want to, then was forced into an embarrassing U-turn when Sony offered a viable alternative. It is finding that out in the mobile and tablet marketplaces, which it came to as a late entrant and failed to provide reasons for people to switch. And it's about to find that out on the desktop, where the message coming through on Windows 8 is that even die-hard Windows users will bide their time and see what else comes along rather than making the shift to an operating system that forces unwanted changes onto them.
  Second, he needs to sort out communications. MS does have some good products. The Surface is by no means bad - but it was marketed via that whole incomrpehensible break dancing thing. The XBox One is turning into a decent product (thanks to the aforementioned U-Turns), but every time MS speaks about it, their message comes over as either an apology or a horribly mis-aimed pitch for TV services. MS needs to stop being afraid of selling its products on the basis of its features, rather than coming over like an embarrassing parent trying to be trendy at a teen disco. The obvious answer to the old "I'm a Mac, he's a PC" advertising slur was "yeah, Mac guy looks pretty, but he's actually useless. Look at what PC guy can do". They always seemed curiously afraid to go there.
  Thirdly, judging by the stories that come out of the company, the new CEO needs to sort out some of the staffing and corporate culture issues. MS increasingly looks and sounds like a public sector bureaucracy. Its stack-ranking system in particular is a cack-handed system that's been demonstrated to destroy morale and drive down performance wherever it's used. If MS doesn't want to reduce the size of its workforce, then it needs to adapt its organisation structures in such a way that they actually enable an organisation of that size to respond to new challenges flexibly. That probably means a lot more internal devolution (including over staffing issues).
4. Re:Good news for stockholders by olsmeister · 2013-08-23 02:38 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Which mean Ballmer made about a billion dollars. Joke's on us.
Hurray for Microsoft by GrBear · 2013-08-23 01:34 · Score: 5, Insightful

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'.
CNN breaking news headline by Anonymous Coward · 2013-08-23 01:35 · Score: 5, Funny

"Microsoft says CEO Steve Ballmer will retire within 12 months. No successor named. Stock surges."
Captcha: finally
Re:Surface by geek · 2013-08-23 01:37 · Score: 5, Informative

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.
Ballmer is evidence of the role of luck in life by dkleinsc · 2013-08-23 01:50 · Score: 5, Insightful

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.

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There *was* a perfect time by msobkow · 2013-08-23 01:51 · Score: 5, Interesting
There was a perfect time for the transition:
- Before Windows 8 was approved
- Before Windows RT was approved
- Before Windows Phone and Nokia was approved
- Before Office 365 online was approved
Avoiding those disastrous products would have made Microsoft billions, and those decisions were made by you, Ballmer.
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I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Re:Chair-monkey retires, stock up 9% by Anonymous Coward · 2013-08-23 02:00 · Score: 5, Insightful

I think the better outcome would be if he were replaced by someone who turns Microsoft into a non-evil success company. I prefer a successful good to a failing evil.
Nobel Prize as CEO by gmuslera · 2013-08-23 02:01 · Score: 5, Funny

I mean, his successor is the one that will get one, whoever he is just for not being Ballmer.
Death knell for Metro by JDG1980 · 2013-08-23 02:01 · Score: 5, Interesting

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.
At least eight years too late... by QuietLagoon · 2013-08-23 02:05 · Score: 5, Insightful

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.
Re:Ballmer made $20 billion for investors today by gstoddart · 2013-08-23 02:06 · Score: 5, Informative

It is funny that the value of MSFT with Ballmer in it is $20 Billion less than MSFT without Ballmer in it!
Today, on the initial news, based on speculative market players making trades ... by next week the price of Microsoft will be fluctuating on some other random basis.
I've always found the stock market to be amusing -- because it makes huge swings on things which haven't happened yet, and by the time those things happen they've moved on to being excited/angry about something else entirely.
It's almost as if the stock market is more valuable at predicting the emotions of investors, than any actual financial factors. And in many cases, the actual financials don't seem important -- like when companies are worth more than they're going to earn for the next 20 years.

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Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Disagree by GameboyRMH · 2013-08-23 02:06 · Score: 5, Insightful

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.

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"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
1. Re:Disagree by Anonymous Coward · 2013-08-23 02:54 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Actually, no. Look at MSFT ticker, it's up nearly 10%.
  In summary: the fact that people like like you are on this website is a good indicator of why it is becoming fucking annoying to any person who actually knows anything.
2. Re:Disagree by ackthpt · 2013-08-23 03:00 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  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.
  Listening to financial and investment analysts this morning, not one has a kind word for Steve. He has missed every big thing while pushing Zune, Windows Vista and then Windows 8, the XBox (games are working well for Atari, right?) Metro (which may be very cool to 10% of users) the RT tablet fiasco, honestly, why does this man actually receive bonuses? He's had the company coasting along on markets it was strong in, without creating new markets. Hardly visionary.
  
  --
  
  A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
3. Re:Disagree by Anonymous Coward · 2013-08-23 03:16 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Why do you want Microsoft to fail? They are no longer a monopoly. Competition is good.
4. Re:Disagree by GameboyRMH · 2013-08-23 03:34 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  They're a very bad influence on the industry and are still trying to regain their monopoly (see: UEFI secure boot).
  
  --
  "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
5. Re:Disagree by phantomfive · 2013-08-23 03:38 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  The funny thing is, the market agrees with you. Thus, based on the jump in Micro$oft stock price, and looking at the amount of stock Ballmer owns, he made nearly a billion dollars by quitting.
  
  --
  "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
6. Re:Disagree by Alsee · 2013-08-23 04:08 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Even half a Jobs would turn Microsoft around from the stagnating business it has become.
  In this economy, good luck finding even a part-time-Jobs.
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7. Re:Disagree by dywolf · 2013-08-23 04:30 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  all companies want a monopoly. microsoft isnt unique in this regard. monopoly/homogenization is one of the natural products/extremes of a competitive market.
  
  --
  The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
8. Re:Disagree by tehlinux · 2013-08-23 04:42 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Dude, the zune was awesome and I'd say the same thing about my surfce rt.
  
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  Most linux users don't know this, but the man pages were named after Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris fsck'ing hates noobs!
9. Re:Disagree by jbolden · 2013-08-23 04:54 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  He transitioned Microsoft from being a desktop company to selling a range of server solutions which are quite profitable. He pushed Microsoft up market. He didn't do much in consumer he did a ton in enterprise and the growth in sales shows that.
10. Re:Disagree by Shark · 2013-08-23 06:54 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Who knows? He might even get ousted after a huge sex scandal that shades what you listed. Think about it.
  Why would you bring something like that up? Now I pictured him humping a secretary grunting "Developper Developper Developper!" and my brain bluescreened.
  
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  Mind the frickin' laser...