Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Buys the LA Clippers For $2 Billion

DroidJason1 (3589319) writes "Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has purchased the LA Clippers for a whopping $2 billion, also setting a new record price for an NBA team. This deal is apparently tentative until Donald Sterling gives his blessing. Twenty-nine other NBA owners need to offer their approval as well, but that shouldn't be a problem as long as Ballmer reaffirms his commitment of keeping the Clippers in Los Angeles. Interestingly, Donald Sterling had purchased the team back in June of 1981 for $12.5 million." We talked about this earlier in the week when rumors of the purchase started circulating.

Comments

What a punishment

[ClownPenis]

Poor racist bastard. We showed him!

Re:What a punishment

[fizzer06]

Most hated man in America buys team from the second most hated man.

Re:What a punishment

[rudy_wayne]

Will he rename the teams to the Los Angeles Clippys?

Re:What a punishment

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear NBA, if you can punish me like that, I'll take it.

Re:What a punishment

[Anonymous Coward]

The report is not accurate ... a deal has not yet been made.

Re:What a punishment

[Anonymous Coward]

Punishment? Last I checked it's still legal to be a racist. He might be an asshole but part of a free society is having assholes be assholes. Get over it already. You can't legislate morality.

Re:What a punishment

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't legislate morality.

Not only you can, you must. What do you think is the penal code? I agree that disagreeable speech must be protected, but that has to do with the immorality of the alternative. I would not like to live in a country ruled by sharia law, for instance. But who decides is the population. Also, do not let those fucking retarded jesus freaks take over your laws.

Re:What a punishment

[colinrichardday]

Hey, Blake Griffin! It looks like you're attempting a slam dunk. Would you like some help?

Re:What a punishment

[vanyel]

This is actually the sort of thing I was afraid was going to happen, sending a message that it's very profitable to be a bigot.

Re:What a punishment

[cadeon]

It doesn't matter if he renames his team; Slashdot and the rest of the world will rename it for him.

I, for one, welcome our new animated paperclip basketball team.

Re:What a punishment

[Ol Olsoc]

Will he rename the teams to the Los Angeles Clippys?

Whoooooh! That is just too synchronistic.

Well play sir, by the way.

Re:What a punishment

[Anonymous Coward]

...part of a free society is having assholes be assholes.

Very few people want to live in a world where everyone is free to do whatever they want. There's even a logical contradiction in the idea of total freedom: am I free to restrict your freedom?

Many libertarians like the idea of using "property rights" to restrict freedom (you can't walk across this land because I "own" it, you can't punch me in the face because I "own" it, etc.). Of course, that means that rich people have a greater ability to restrict other people's freedom than poor people.

Another natural restriction on freedom is consequences to others. You can do whatever you want as long as it doesn't hurt other people. Incidentally, voluntary interaction and association are related to that - and form a basis for contract law. And this also leads to the distinction between thought and action. Thoughts don't hurt people but actions can. It's legal to dislike a certain class of people but not necessarily legal to take action against them

Digressing a bit, it's interesting that there are strict laws against discriminating against people (e.g. in employment) on the basis of race - but discriminating against people on the basis of nationality is not only allowed but actually required - even though both race and nationality are overwhelmingly accidents of birth. In a certain sense, foreign is the new black.

Re:What a punishment

[Frosty Piss]

Steve Ballmer has purchased the LA Clippers for a whopping $2 billion ... This deal is apparently tentative

So, in other words, he has *not* purchased the Clippers (yet).

Re:What a punishment

[Adriax]

I wonder if he bought them for help with his chair throwing? I heard he's having problems with his follow through.

Re:What a punishment

[LifesABeach]

One can only imagine what the chairs at the Staples Center will be thinking.

Re:What a punishment

[RJFerret]

Who can I upset enough to buy my properties for a hundred and sixty times more than I paid?

Re:What a punishment

[blueturffan]

No, it sends the message that it's very profitable to own a professional sports franchise.

Re:What a punishment

[PopeRatzo]

Hey, Blake Griffin! It looks like you're attempting a slam dunk. Would you like some help?

Will Pau Gasol now perform a "high screen of death"?

[Note: you have to know some basic b-ball tactics to get this one.]

Re:What a punishment

[Anubis IV]

From Wikipedia:

Sterling acquired the Clippers in 1981 for $12.5 million, and as of 2014, the team is valued at $575 million by Forbes magazine [...]

So, this guy makes incredibly racist remarks, and he gets rewarded by a payout worth nearly 4x the value of his team?

Ballmer should have lowballed the sleaze bag and refused to give him even the amount is was valued at. And that's the least he should've done. Never entering into business with him at all would have been preferable, but Ballmer was never known for having an awareness of how things might be perceived or a sense of what is tasteful.

Re:What a punishment

[Anonymous Coward]

"Ballmer should have lowballed"

Everyone called him "Monkey Boy" for years. Do you now think he is smart?

Re:What a punishment

[Anonymous Coward]

Nah, most likely 'Los Angeles Tilers'

Re:What a punishment

[Rakarra]

Many libertarians like the idea of using "property rights" to restrict freedom (you can't walk across this land because I "own" it, you can't punch me in the face because I "own" it, etc.). Of course, that means that rich people have a greater ability to restrict other people's freedom than poor people.

Pretty much every major system of government has the result that rich people have a greater ability to restrict other peoples' freedom than poor people.

The only counterexamples I can think of would be the idealized/never-implemented pure Communism. The system of government helps determine who becomes rich, to some extent.

Re:What a punishment

[fnj]

Yeah, you can legislate moral acts, but you can't (with successful effect) legislate moral thinking or any kind of thinking. What is truly depressing and frightening is that idiots constantly TRY to legislate/mandate moral THINKING.

Re:What a punishment

[Fjandr]

Which in turn can be boiled down to: It's profitable to be extremely wealthy.

Re:What a punishment

[fnj]

Very few people want to live in a world where everyone is free to do whatever they want.

Yes, that is undoubtedly true, and it also utterly misses the point. Those who try to fashion a world where no one is free to THINK whatever they want can preferable go STRAIGHT TO HELL.

And private conversations between two individuals are only infinitesimally separated from thoughts.

All that being said, whatever transaction Steve Ballmer makes or doesn't make with Donald Sterling is strictly their business. It is (in isolation) of no concern to anybody, though the NBA may make it their business with the connivance of the government.

Re:What a punishment

[blueturffan]

If I had a dime for every dime I have...

Re:What a punishment

[clarkkent09]

Ballmer should have lowballed the sleaze bag and refused to give him even the amount is was valued at
 
Since Ballmer was far from being the only party interested in purchasing Clippers, what purpose would that serve other than having his offer rejected?

Re:What a punishment

[Opportunist]

As long as he doesn't call them the LA Metro, that would probably make a few people a bit confused.

Re:What a punishment

[Anubis IV]

Moral high ground.

Re:What a punishment

[phantomfive]

Poor racist bastard. We showed him!

It's likely the only reason the NBA is so angry about this, is because they wanted to kick him out anyway. They were just looking for an excuse. In other words, the NBA doesn't care if he is punished or not, as long as he loses the team.

Re:What a punishment

[antdude]

Clippies. The mascot with be a giant paperclip that throws chairs and do monkey dances, "developers, developers, developers...".

Re:What a punishment

[davester666]

"I'm glad I'm bolted down!"

Re:What a punishment

[Tablizer]

Wrong LA team

Re:What a punishment

[GNious]

Hey, Blake Griffin! It looks like you're attempting a slam dunk. Would you like some help?

Will Pau Gasol now perform a "high screen of death"?

[Note: you have to know some basic b-ball tactics to get this one.]

Yeah, somehow I don't think Slashdot is home to a lot of baseball tacticians.

Re:What a punishment

[Anonymous Coward]

The LA ChAirforce

Re:What a punishment

[N1AK]

Those who try to fashion a world where no one is free to THINK whatever they want can preferable go STRAIGHT TO HELL.

If you've got a point then I suggest getting to it. Sterling isn't being prosecuted for what he said. A private organisation has asked is using powers he has agreed to it having to remove him because that is what the majority of its members want. That in itself is freedom; stopping the NBA and its members from kicking him out for being a racist would be restricting their freedom.

Re:What a punishment

[Anonymous Coward]

I would not like to live in a country ruled by sharia law, for instance. But who decides is the population.

You are stupid, because sharia law is community law. It is a way for local people to make their own decisions. They trust their leaders to make their decisions for them. That this trust seems to be often abused, thats another situation entirely

Re:What a punishment

[BitZtream]

What about the ones court side?

Re:What a punishment

[Anonymous Coward]

^ HAHA

Oh come on... Rudy_Wayne must win something for this comment :)

Re:What a punishment

[BitZtream]

I'd agree with you, you don't seem to be much of a sports person yourself ... since we're talking about basketball ... not baseball.

Pau Gasol is a basketball player (though not for the Clippers) , and a high screen is a specific offensive tactic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Re:What a punishment

[Anonymous Coward]

Los Angeles Visual Clippers++ would be more appropriate.

Re:What a punishment

[PopeRatzo]

When you've seen one LA team, you've seen them all.

Re:What a punishment

[swb]

I can only guess that the NBA has talked to their attorneys and found out their ability to strip Sterling of his ownership was more complicated and expensive than they thought, compounded by the fact that I think its tied up with his wife and their divorce proceedings. At a minimum Sterling is very rich, very old and probably willing to make it very expensive for the NBA to force his hand. If it's uncertain you will prevail against an adversary capable and likely willing to throw $250 million at lawyers to defeat you, you give in. Even if they would have ultimately won, Sterling could have cost the league many millions and years to achieve their goal.

The upshot being Sterling could demand whatever he wanted to sell the team. The NBA, wanting to be rid of Sterling, was probably more than willing to greenlight a sale to the right buyer -- someone of standing who also had no problem financing the buyout.

There was talk of A-list black celebrities buying the team, but that kind of financing gets complicated -- I don't think any of them individually have the kind of cash to finance a buyout easily, requiring a complex partnership/investment ownership which I think most sports leagues don't favor. I'd also guess that even if a single buyer in this category could have financed this solo (Oprah's net is sub-$3 billion, but probably highly illiquid) they would then be facing a lot of negative PR for agreeing to any terms of Sterling's.

I'd also guess that the NBA may have also agreed to some kind of long-term bump in TV money to offset Ballmer's price tag. This way Ballmer actually pays less for the team while not making it look like the NBA was being forced to buy Sterling out at his price, which would have been negative PR, making them look like they were capitulating to him.

Re:What a punishment

[MachineShedFred]

And in no way was he making a joke that charged right past your defense.

Re:What a punishment

[Anonymous Coward]

Money attracts money.

Re:What a punishment

[LifesABeach]

I'm wondering if Steve will let Jack Nickelson get up first.

Re:What a punishment

[Anonymous Coward]

's/ground/horse/'

Re:What a punishment

[JTsyo]

A charge doesn't go past a defender... wait you're doing it again aren't you?

Re:What a punishment

[Anonymous Coward]

Committing an act due to legislation is different than committing and act due to morality. I know on the surface it almost looks the same but that "almost" makes a big difference.

Re:What a punishment

[Anonymous Coward]

Yet you don't know which team Pau Gasol plays for? (hint: not the Clippers)

Re:What a punishment

[idontgno]

Basketball, as a sport, already has some familiarity with this problem.

Re:What a punishment

[idontgno]

"Whoosh": the sound a basketball makes going over your head.

Re:What a punishment

[Ralph Wiggam]

What legislation was involved in this story?

Re:What a punishment

[Ralph Wiggam]

That wasn't his punishment. His punishment was a $2.5M fine (the largest the league can levy) and more importantly he was banned from all NBA sanctioned events for life.

Contrary to what 100 comments in this thread are saying, this sale didn't change his net worth by a dime. He was just forced to liquidate an asset that was already on his balance sheet. The Dodgers sold for $2.1B recently so it was assumed that the Clippers would go for around that much.

Re:What a punishment

[rwv]

If I had a dime for every dime I have...

If I had $2 billion for every time you've said that...

Re:What a punishment

[JackieBrown]

This is actually the sort of thing I was afraid was going to happen, sending a message that it's very profitable to be a bigot.

What did you think was going to happen? Did you expect the government or someone else to confiscate it? Or for no one to bid on the team?

Re:What a punishment

[JackieBrown]

Why do you think that the team is still worth what it was in 1981?

Re:What a punishment

[Anubis IV]

I can't tell if you're intentionally being obtuse or not. The quote I provided lists the 2014 valuation as well, and I explicitly made mention of the fact that Ballmer's $2B bid was roughly 4x the team's valuation, so it should have been clear I was referencing the 2014 valuation, not the 1981 valuation.

Re:What a punishment

[vanyel]

Exactly the reasons I thought this was going to happen...

Re:What a punishment

[CWCheese]

Actually, his net worth did change substantially yesterday afternoon, given that the financial community values the LA Clippers at around $575M based on the recent sale price of the Milwaukee Bucks. Thus his net worth jumped nearly $1.5B and the Clippers have only been an above average team for the past 2 seasons.

It's a good bet that he may have surreptitiously arranged to have his wife play good cop to his bad cop, so that the NBA board of governors are painted into a corner. NBA is desperate to rid themselves of him and he is going to hold them hostage to the penalties, both the fine and banishment, such that the penalties will have to be rescinded in exchange for his signing the sale contract. He may not be liked for being a jerk, but he is a very clever lawyer.

Re:What a punishment

[Ralph Wiggam]

You do realize that the Milwaukee Bucks play in Milwaukee, right? LA is a slightly bigger media market.

I don't understand the point of him fighting the penalties. 2.5M is a negligible amount of money. And if he ever shows up at a ballgame again, he will be showered in drinks. But he obviously has some screws loose.

He apparently is well known in LA real estate circles for being a ninja master of legal maneuvering and loopholes.

Re:What a punishment

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, Blake Griffin! It looks like you're attempting a slam dunk. Would you like some help?

Will Pau Gasol now perform a "high screen of death"?

[Note: you have to know some basic b-ball tactics to get this one.]

Yeah, somehow I don't think Slashdot is home to a lot of baseball tacticians.

And someone would have to know what a screen is but ignore the fact that Pau Gasol is a Laker, not a Clipper...

Re:What a punishment

[Hillgiant]

The old auto racing quote:

"In order to make a small fortune in racing, first you need a large fortune."

Re:What a punishment

[Anonymous Coward]

The penal code is when I am near a park downtown and well, I do something and wake up in jail later that day. They say something something indecency but exposure is for film.

Re:What a punishment

[Anonymous Coward]

However, I have a sneaking suspicion that, had he murdered a few babies at a day care center, there's be less outcry.

Oh No!

[oldhack]

Ballmer will be throwing chairs from the courtside now.

Re:Oh No!

[DoofusOfDeath]

Ballmer will be throwing chairs from the courtside now.

I think you beat about 50,000 Slashdot users to that thread of humor.

Re:Oh No!

[mattack2]

Bobby Knight beat him to it, long ago.

(Wow.. I couldn't remember his name, and googling "chair throwing coach" found it immediately. We live in a wonderful time.)

Re:Oh No!

[Anonymous Coward]

They will post the joke anyway because austists have to autist.

Re:Oh No!

[rmdingler]

50,000 Slashdot users?

Is that in Dogecoin years?

Re:Oh No!

[Anonymous Coward]

No. Most of us moved on years ago. Jokes get stale and holding on to animosity of someone we don't know, we'll never meet and has no power over us is just plainly dumb.
 
Grow up or look like a little bitch all your life. The choice is yours.

Re:Oh No!

[Anonymous Coward]

Bobby Knight will be the new head coach. Imagine Knight and Ballmer as tag-team chair throwers.

Re:Oh No!

[Jason Levine]

They can have one of those fan contests where a fan goes onto the court and tries to do something to win a prize. Only instead of taking a shot from half court, they'll need to throw more chairs than Ballmer or Knight.

Re:Oh No!

[Rakarra]

Bobby Knight will be the new head coach. Imagine Knight and Ballmer as tag-team chair throwers.

This needs to be a side-scrolling video games. Knight and Ballmer as bad guys, rapid-fire-throwing chairs.

Re:Oh No!

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah. But I bet that Ballmer will have the better cheerleader routine.

A potty-mouthed, chair-throwing, murder-threatening monkey dancer owning the Clippies. Maybe I'll start following pro basketball, it maybe is about to get more interesting.

Re:Oh No!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's obvious which path you chose, bitch.

Re:Oh No!

[Talderas]

Bobby Knight beat him to that.

Re:Oh No!

[Anonymous Coward]

where do you think ballmer got the idea from?

Re:Oh No!

[Anonymous Coward]

Don Nelson was in the running, but he only throws coats.

Re:Oh No!

[JohnMadsen]

Sounds like you need to sit down... in a chair. Steve, throw one this way please.

Instead of a new TV I guess

[fey000]

I like how one of the worst CEO's of all time still makes enough money to go on a $2 billion shopping spree.
At my job, I only get a bonus when I perform above expectations...

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Anonymous Coward]

I like how you ignore the fac that he was the 30th employee of and owned an 8% stake in one of the largest and most successful companies ever. Idiot.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[l0ungeb0y]

He wasn't a CEO as much as he was a co-founder of one of the biggest Tech Goldmines ever.
So yeah, for him spending 2 Billion on a sports team is like you and I going out and buying a new Porsche.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Worst CEO by what measure? He grew MS at consistent and above industry average rate during his stint as CEO, increased profit margin, market share and diversified their product range. He seems to have been one of the most successfull CEO's of the last decade. don't confuse your hatred of him and the MS shareprice with how he has gone as CEO. By all realistic measures he has been wildly successful

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[freeze128]

He is the former CEO of a company that was formerly one of the most successful. Slashdot doesn't seem to have a sports category, so I guess that's why it's listed under "The Almighty Dollar". Even if it did, I wouldn't want to read it. This is the kind of story that is fine to be left to mainstream news outlets.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Anonymous Coward]

He could literally buy an entire 3rd world nation of slaves with that, just to spite everyone.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[bloodhawk]

Worst CEO of all time? geez most CEO's would give their right arm to be half as successful as he has been since he became CEO. Profits, revenue and sales all increased under him year on year with very good growth across the board while not allowing costs to blow out. Yes he had plenty of failures but from a business standpoint he has actually been a massive success for them with his successes far outweighing the failures, could he have been more successful with a few smarter choices, SURE, but very few CEO's have outperformed him over the past decade or so.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

Just as long as you don't compare his performance to that of Apple, Google, or Facebook and completely ignore the failures in the longhorn, vista, windows Mobile, windows tablet, MS hailstorm, MSN Live, Bing, windows RT, Surface, Windows 8 and the decline of the PC form factor. Then yeah, he did great.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Anonymous Coward]

or to reverse it he did bad as long as you ignore, cloud, office, visual studio, .NET, windows server, office, dynamics, exchange, hyper-V, enterprise marketshare, sharepoint, SQL Server, Active Directory, Surface pro 2 and 3, Xbox, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, windows marketshare and the companies financial position.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Anonymous Coward]

and powershell, office, Windows Vista SP2, office, and office.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[evilviper]

This is the kind of story that is fine to be left to mainstream news outlets.

Meh, it's an okay story for /. AS LONG AS we don't get 5,000 follow-up stories, several per week, about what mundane thing Balmer and the Clippers happen to be doing... Ala Steve Jobs/Apple, Elon Musk/Tesla/SpaceX, the latest mundane global warming paper, and many, many others.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[sootman]

Forbes says his net worth is $20 billion, so $2 billion is actually as good-sized chunk of that.

Now he's as poor as Michael Dell.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Paradise Pete]

Now he's as poor as Michael Dell.

So you are valuing the Clippers at $0?

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Your.Master]

MS share price is a valid measure, though not the only one.

I don't blame him for 2001 or a short time after. However his tenure was flat for a *very* long time, during which several notable competitors outperformed him by a lot.

I think people are a little hard on Ballmer sometimes, but there are lots of realistic measures where he's not wildly successful. And frankly, you pay CEOs what they get paid expecting wild success (Ballmer did request a relatively low salary as major CEOs go, with cash well-under a million and about 1.3 million in total compensation, cite: http://www.cnbc.com/id/1010870...), probably in part because he already had a shit-tonne of MS stock and was a billionaire so money could not possibly motivate him in the same sense that it motivates people who live on their salaries. He'd have received hundreds of times more than his total compensation *purely in dividends from MSFT stock*. A quick back-of-the envelope calculation is about 300x more.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Rakarra]

Ballmer was a decent caretaker CEO. His biggest flaw was that he proceeded a visionary. He wasn't one himself, not even close.

He didn't blow up the company.
Compare that to the CEOs of Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics, most Silicon Valley firms over the same time, and pretty much ANY executive at HP.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[bloodhawk]

No I think his biggest problem was that he inherited a company that had a shareprice that was at the time massively overinflated, It masked much of his success of the following decade as people would point at the shareprice and claim he was failing even though financially he was providing excellent growth. He did more than just be a caretaker, he significantly diversified the company while still maintaining a solid to excellent (though not shooting star) growth throughout his time at the helm. I will agree he wasn't a technology visionary, though he was definitely very successful business wise.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[digsbo]

You get a bonus for performing above expectations? What company???!!!

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[theskipper]

Like it or not, CEOs are measured by their share price. When Ballmer took over in first quarter of 2000, Microsoft's market cap was $534.42B.
http://www.wikinvest.com/stock...

Their current market cap is $399B.

$135B in market cap was lost over 14 years while he was CEO. You may be right that he's a great marketing guy, etc., but "wildly successful" as a CEO may be a touch unrealistic.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Anonymous Coward]

At my job, I only get a bonus when I perform above expectations...

Maybe Bill Gates expectations were that Ballmer would be worse than Dr. Evil after being defrost? Why make billions... when you can make... millions?"

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Anonymous Coward]

The shareprice is actually one of the worst measures. When he took over they were trading at a very high P/E ratio which was not justifiable given projected profits and growth numbers, it was many many times higher than was realistic. The flat shareprice was because no sane level of growth could ever hope to justify that shareprice. It wasn't until about 2010 that the income of MS actually caught up to the shareprice (which is actually a pretty amazing achievement in and of itself given the differential that was in place back in 2001) and since then they have seen some pretty decent improvements in shareprice.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft is a dividend stock. It intentionally maintains a flat share price by constantly paying out dividends.

Share price is one of the dumbest things you could measure a CEO by.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Opportunist]

I'd like to see that relative to the performance of other companies. Anyone has any numbers from competitors?

Not trying to defend Ballmer here, but I think you can only tell the quality of a CEO by comparing his company to another one in the same business. It's trivial to turn a profit in an economic boom.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Opportunist]

Every one I know.

Of course, for us mundanes, the expectations are about as far out as they can be so that bonus is virtually impossible to get. In other words, if you want to see that carrot dangling, bring your telescope.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Anonymous Coward]

dumb.

Compare that to the tech industry sector over the same period and you'll find that the tech industry is valued at about half of what it was at the peak in 2000.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[bloodhawk]

Stock price isn't actually a particularly good measure in the case of MS unless you also factor in P/E ratios, When balmer took over they were trading at a P/E ratio of around 40-45. That isn't a realistic number for any company unless they are expecting meteoric growth numbers which given the valuation at the time was just not possible or sustainable, they would have to have grown to well in excess of being a trillion dollar company today to justify that number or to put in perspective they would need to be worth more than apple and google combined. MS currently trade at P/E ratio of around 15.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Anonymous Coward]

You get a bonus for exceeding expectations? In a world of "mandatory overtime" and the Orwellian "right to work", I'm told that just keeping my job is reward enough.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[chrisautrey]

So you are valuing the Clippers at $0?

Doesn't pretty much everybody?

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[theskipper]

Given the dotcom bubble I thought it would be unfair too. But if you look at just large cap tech, it's nowhere near as bad as what happened to the pure-play dotcoms and networkers:

Over the same time frame:
Oracle: $86B -> $185B
Apple: $18B -> $547B
HP: $45B -> $64B
And of course IPOs that happened a couple years later like Google and Salesforce were multi-baggers.

So comparing the peak mkt cap of the bubble is actually not that unfair. Considering Microsoft had a monopoly in 2000 and couldn't even maintain a constant enterprise value over 14 years, again, I wouldn't call that a "wildly successful" performance by the CEO.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[rogoshen1]

i get this site disliking Gates due to the anti-trust and anti-competitive behavior that MS has been guilty of in the past -- but how much of that actually occurred under Balmer's tenure as CEO?

He sounds like a jackass on his own accord -- but the level of disdain people have for him, is that because of things he did/enabled -- or did the stink of MS / Gates simply rub off on him ?

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Protip: Don't tell people on slashdot about your massive returns from investing in Microsoft...

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Xest]

To be fair most companies pay bonuses based on financial performance of the business. Whatever other mistakes Ballmer made at Microsoft aside he did still successfully grow the company financially year on year during his time as CEO at the end of the day. As such it makes sense that he got bonus payments if like pretty much everywhere else financial targets were the metric on which he was judged.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[N1AK]

Rather than Sun, Yahoo and dozens of tech companies that have imploded during that window. The fact you try and pin the decline of "PCs" on MS just emphasises that your position is based on your dislike of MS rather than anything rational.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Opportunist]

Yup, that pretty much closes it. Ballmer is a dud as a manager.

And he sure is no Baryshnikov either, so... what the heck is that guy good for?

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Peter Simpson]

I like how one of the worst CEO's of all time still makes enough money to go on a $2 billion shopping spree. At my job, I only get a bonus when I perform above expectations...

A former boss once said it best: (At the C level) It's a club, and the rule is "F*ck up, and move up!"

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Gavagai80]

Once you have a monopoly, there's nowhere left to go but down.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[MachineShedFred]

You're forgetting that Slashdot now has corporate overlords, and corporate overlords like click-bait. Any time they can entice people to post comments about sweaty monkey-dancing, off-putting chants of "developers developers developers", or chair throwing they are going to.

I LOVE THIS FRANCHISE!!! YEAAAAAAHHHHH!

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[MachineShedFred]

Yeah, he looks great if you have your head up your ass and only pay attention to SEC filings.

However, since the time that he took over, he sold the future to pay for the 10Q filings of today. Microsoft is now a barely-player in the mobile space that they were in before Apple (sans Newton), Google, or RIM; their operating system that ran the world is now diminishing in importance, and Office isn't even the vehicle for vendor lock-in it used to be. They have a family of game consoles that may have turned a few bucks in profit somewhere after a decade, but I doubt it because of the massive hardware failures and ill-will caused by the RROD fiasco, and their amazingly short-sighted ideas for the current generation. They've tried the connected TV thing about half a dozen times and failed every time. They had the "tablet computer" for 10 years before Apple showed them what they should have been selling, and why they weren't selling.

At the end of Ballmer's tenure, Microsoft is basically the same company it was when he took over - a company that makes all it's money from Windows and Office. He did nothing to change that, and Windows and Office aren't nearly the must-haves they used to be. The Internet now runs on *nix, front to back - Apache serving the pages, Android / iOS consuming them. Not a line of Microsoft code to be found.

Oh, but yeah, he was a great CEO.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[tehlinux]

No. That's why it's part of the deal that he cannot relocate the team.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this guy your dad?

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Anonymous Coward]

So many market idiots on this site.

Market Cap and Share Price are not the only ways for a company to be successful. Microsoft consistently pays out dividends to keep its Share Price level. Also, selecting three companies that managed tremendous growth is a horrible comparison. You should be comparing to the entire Tech Sector as a whole, which is current at about HALF of its peak from 2000.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[UnknowingFool]

At best he's mediocre, but he's made some serious missteps in strategy. Fake Steve Jobs said it best: "The problem is he has no vision, and no imagination. He’s all left brain." Ballmer was a good steward but not a bold leader.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps you need to understand how net worth works.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[UnknowingFool]

While it's true that Ballmer took over after the bubble and the price has been stagnant, others have done more with less. The problem for Ballmer was that Jobs returned to Apple. Ballmer will always be compared to Jobs and what he did for Apple.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[theskipper]

Nope. At the end I specifically said EV. Which for MSFT was cut in half over the period, unlike ORCL which is back to almost the same as the bubble peak. Its direct competitor Apple ate Microsoft's lunch during that period and AAPL's EV shows that fact clearly.

And needless to say, comparing MSFT to pets.com makes no sense, nor does lumping "tech" in one big basket.

Bottom line is they had a monopoly and a golden opportunity to leverage it into the same thing that Apple did. They sat around and tried to protect the empire instead of innovating. That's what the valuation shows in black and white.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[idontgno]

You're right. There's just no telling what kinds of incalculable damage is being done to the reputation of Slashdot and the psyche of its membership by being denied another Bitcoin story, a Dice slashvertisement, or another Bennet Haselton blog post masquerading as a slashstory. Because, you know, bringing one inappropriate story to the front page is clearly denying the really important stuff the critical editorial attention every story deserves.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[pastafazou]

Hey, it's Steve himself, posting as AC!

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Ralph Wiggam]

I'm pretty sure that he has other investors involved.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

PC == wintel. If they get credit for the rise of the PC, they get credit for its decline.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

The question was by what measure was he a failure.

I don't think I over did the failures. I do think you went too far in giving him credit for things that happened when gates was still there:

Microsoft Office, Windows Server, Visual studio, Exchange, Sql Server ( is that really successful? Never really hear about it anymore), .Net ( Didn't really meet their orignal expectations), Active Directory, Xbox.

Plus a few things that aren't successful:

Windows 8.1, Surface Pro 2 or 3 ( Seriously? giving a past ceo credit for the success of an unreleased product? )

I think I was rather tame, I didn't even bring up Internet explorer, Microsoft Money, Encarta, or the red rings of death.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

Also, if I dislike Microsoft its because its failed over and over the past ten years at Good, Secure, and reasonably priced software. They could have been so much more. And in an objective sense, they've had those opretunities, the technologies, the talent to be what Facebook , Google, or Apple have become. But they didn't. That's a failure of leadership. It falls on Balmer. I actually have great hope for them under the new ceo. It seems like they are acknowledging their role must change and they must co-operate with open standards in order to thrive.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[slashdot_commentator]

Don't you also think its unfair to conclude Ballmer was a failure based on what Jobs was able to do? Its like saying Patrick Ewing was a failure because Michael Jordan was always in the way. (Except when MJ wasn't, and Ewing still failed, to the Rockets and the Pacers. Ewing was still a player to be reckoned with for most of his career, even if I think of Hakeem Owajuan as moreso, as well as having a higher opinion of Charles Barkley, Reggie Miller, and Shaq.)

Its unfair to compare Ballmer's tenure to Microsoft's peak in market cap, because that peak occurred before 2000, crashed real hard during the the 2000 bubble. Based on when Ballmer took over, and when he left, it only lost a fraction of its market cap at the time. Basically, Ballmer guided Microsoft into mediocrity, not really growing its value. But that's not the mark of a failure, considering that Sun Microsystems, Palm, etc. don't even exist today. IBM increased in market cap over the past 10 years, but it was a huge player in tech over a decade ago, and now is kind of a market afterthought. Where's the contempt for Sam Palmisano?

Lets face it, not every company can have a Steve Jobs for CEO. Does that make every tech company that didn't quadruple its market share a failure?

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[UnknowingFool]

Don't you also think its unfair to conclude Ballmer was a failure based on what Jobs was able to do? Its like saying Patrick Ewing was a failure because Michael Jordan was always in the way. (Except when MJ wasn't, and Ewing still failed, to the Rockets and the Pacers. Ewing was still a player to be reckoned with for most of his career, even if I think of Hakeem Owajuan as moreso, as well as having a higher opinion of Charles Barkley, Reggie Miller, and Shaq.)

See the problem is that you think only in terms of binary. Ballmer was a failure or success. I don't think did as well as Jobs especially when it came to a larger strategic vision. Jobs had the vision. Ballmer was just managing things.

Its unfair to compare Ballmer's tenure to Microsoft's peak in market cap, because that peak occurred before 2000, crashed real hard during the the 2000 bubble. Based on when Ballmer took over, and when he left, it only lost a fraction of its market cap at the time. Basically, Ballmer guided Microsoft into mediocrity, not really growing its value. But that's not the mark of a failure, considering that Sun Microsystems, Palm, etc. don't even exist today. IBM increased in market cap over the past 10 years, but it was a huge player in tech over a decade ago, and now is kind of a market afterthought. Where's the contempt for Sam Palmisano

And what did Jobs start with? By any measure, Apple was nowhere near the same position as MS when both men took over their companies.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[bitSmiter]

Surface is losing money, and XBox has been losing money for over a decade now. I wouldn't call them successes at all.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Anonymous Coward]

SQL server is one of the most successful commercial DB's nowadays, over the last decade they have stolen massive marketshare from both IBM and Oracle, it is now a multi billion dollar business for MS. Balmer also massively grew the windows server and exchange businesses, they were exponentially smaller businesses when he took over, Not sure how you can claim .NEt didn't meet expectations. it is one of the most used technologies in enterprises today alongside Java.

Also regardless of how bad you view vista as it still outsold any non windows desktop OS in the last decade, and you can hardly blame him for the decline of the PC form factor. You were not tame on your listing of failures, you were rather harsh and you can't list the failures with listing the success's, basically you were called out for trolling.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Xbox makes money now and has been for the last 4 or 5 years (though it does have a large hole to dig out of). Surface has seen massive growth in the last 2 quarters, RT is a lemon but the Surface pro line is doing exceptionally well.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[Meski]

Not worst, or even close. Think on it, Microsoft still exists, still makes a profit, did not go to US taxpayers for a bailout. We may mock him unmercifully, (and deservedly) for the products MS make, but that's another thing.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[slashdot_commentator]

See the problem is that you think only in terms of binary. Ballmer was a failure or success. I don't think did as well as Jobs especially when it came to a larger strategic vision. Jobs had the vision. Ballmer was just managing things.

Incorrect. I'm pointing out that not everyone can perform like Jobs, and its obvious he was an industry anomaly. Most CEOs are more like Ballmer; they are managers, not pioneers, and they don't get the credit when they do a good job, or steer the best possible result in a losing cause. I use the basketball analogy to point out that there can be a lot of basketball superstars, and not match the performance of a Michael Jordan. That doesn't make them failures, and it doesn't make Ballmer a failure for not matching Jobs' performance.

Its unfair to compare Ballmer's tenure to Microsoft's peak in market cap, [...] Where's the contempt for Sam Palmisano

And what did Jobs start with? By any measure, Apple was nowhere near the same position as MS when both men took over their companies.

Who cares? We've already established that Jobs is a uniquely successful CEO. Jobs is the anomaly, not the standard expectation of a successful CEO.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[UnknowingFool]

Most CEOs are more like Ballmer; they are managers, not pioneers, and they don't get the credit when they do a good job, or steer the best possible result in a losing cause.

The job of a CEO is not to be a "manager". They are to be the leader. The job of a President or COO is to be the manager. Ballmer was never a leader; he just managed things without a larger sense of what MS was supposed to do. His

I use the basketball analogy to point out that there can be a lot of basketball superstars, and not match the performance of a Michael Jordan.

A more correct analogy has nothing to do with performance. Phil Jackson who coached both Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant would pick MJ over Kobe because MJ was a stronger leader in his opinion.

That doesn't make them failures, and it doesn't make Ballmer a failure for not matching Jobs' performance.

Again, it's not a binary: failure or success. Ballmer didn't do as well as Jobs not because he didn't match the stock price increase that Apple had. He didn't do as well as Jobs because under his watch MS was reactionary to whatever Google, Oracle, Apple, etc was doing.

Re:Instead of a new TV I guess

[stenvar]

Your retirement savings should be about 8x of your final salary. A Porsche is about $80000. Developers easily make $100000. So, yeah, it's about like you or I going out and buying a Porsche.

I think I speak for a lot of people

[NotSoHeavyD3]

when I say "If this the guy that ends up with the Clippers I would have preferred if they left it with the racist."

Re:I think I speak for a lot of people

[NotSoHeavyD3]

Damn I really should double check it "If this is the guy that ends up with the Clippers I would have preferred if they left it with the racist."

Re:I think I speak for a lot of people

[fermion]

I think it will make the game very exciting. Seeing chairs thrown every time the refs makes a controversial call will maximize attendance.

Re:News for Nerds?

[flatt]

You might be shocked to find out, despite the stereotype, that a large number of nerds are interested in professional sports as well. When an important figure in technology buys a sports team, it is a newsworthy item. Otherwise, feel free to ignore stories that you personally don't find interesting going forward.

Instead of a new TV I guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe he did.

Steve is channeling his inner Cuban

[rmdingler]

Nowadays, a complete collection of pristine antique automobiles and two Gulfstreams aren't enough to get Billionaire-level respect.

How many pro teams you own, bro?

Re:Steve is channeling his inner Cuban

[confused one]

my yacht is bigger than your yacht...

Re:Steve is channeling his inner Cuban

[jd2112]

my yacht is bigger than your yacht...

Translation: Your penis is bigger than my penis...

Re:Steve is channeling his inner Cuban

[Stormwatch]

thatsthejoke.jpg

What do the Clippers need?

[Anonymous Coward]

Rebounders! Rebounders! Rebounders! Rebounders! Rebounders!

(or maybe Scorers! Scorers! Scorers! Scorers! Scorers!)

How appropriate

[Anonymous Coward]

Let the chair throwing begin!

Wow that much money?

[linuxguy]

One has to wonder if Donald Sterling would have received this much money for his team without a scandal? It appears to me that he greatly profited from the scandal.

Re:Wow that much money?

[rhsanborn]

We just need a political angle and maybe we can get Glenn Beck to "ask some questions"...

Re:Wow that much money?

[quantaman]

One has to wonder if Donald Sterling would have received this much money for his team without a scandal? It appears to me that he greatly profited from the scandal.

Without the scandal it wouldn't have been sold until after his death.

Almost certainly the scandal would have depressed the price if it changed it at all, I don't see how it made the Clippers more valuable. The longer Sterling held onto the Clippers the more they became associated with racism and the more the brand was damaged. Sterling had to sell quick and that meant the pool of potential buyers were whomever could scrape the cash on short notice. I don't expect it made a big dent in the final price but it probably depressed it a bit.

Re:Wow that much money?

[ganjadude]

simple, it became more valuable because more people wanted to take it from sterling. in their heads they are sticking it to him by taking his baby, if im him though id just be all like ok, i bought this for 12 million, and sold it for 2 billion.... wheres the punishment?

Re:Wow that much money?

[JackieBrown]

If his goal was cash instead of owning the team. Considering he was not selling before this, I don't think it was his goal.

It's not like he was poor, living paycheck to paycheck, and now has 2 billion dollars.

Re:Wow that much money?

[quantaman]

simple, it became more valuable because more people wanted to take it from sterling. in their heads they are sticking it to him by taking his baby, if im him though id just be all like ok, i bought this for 12 million, and sold it for 2 billion.... wheres the punishment?

He's obscenely rich. You have money so you can buy toys, but now he has to sell one of his favourite toys and he can't buy another to replace it, that's punishment. Moreover he's just went from obscenely rich owner of an NBA franchise to obscenely rich person who was so repugnant he had his franchise taken away, that level of condemnation has to sting.

Re:Wow that much money?

[ganjadude]

depends on how you look at it

Im im him, and im old and dying as claimed. Im going to spend every last dollar of that 2 billion to destroy the NBA by any means possible. Id turn it into a game myself

Next Steps

[bobstreo]

Outsource players to Indian H1B visa holders.

Force cross licensing with beer and food vendors.

Require ticket upgrades before you are admitted, no matter how much you paid.

Seasons will only be good in odd years.

Any televised games will require DirectX support.

Re:Next Steps

[PolygamousRanchKid]

No, he's going to Nokia it:

Bring Steve Elop in to run the team into the ground.

Keep the Clippers Intellectual Property and Patents and Stuff.

Profit!

Re:Next Steps

[Anonymous Coward]

Change the mascot to Clippy?

Re:Next Steps

[Anonymous Coward]

Shh....Dan Snyder will hear you.

rid of Ballmer

[globaljustin]

at least we in the tech industry can be thankful that the NBA & LA community will now have to put up with Ballmer's antics

what if it was the reverse?

successful athletes, coaches, and celebrities bought up startups with their big spending...

can you imagine a consortium of Oprah, Magic Johnson, and some Goldman/Sach's types buying facebook.com from Zuck & Co when it was still valued in the low millions before they got on their IPO track w/ Theil?

Re:rid of Ballmer

[quantaman]

at least we in the tech industry can be thankful that the NBA & LA community will now have to put up with Ballmer's antics

what if it was the reverse?

successful athletes, coaches, and celebrities bought up startups with their big spending...

can you imagine a consortium of Oprah, Magic Johnson, and some Goldman/Sach's types buying facebook.com from Zuck & Co when it was still valued in the low millions before they got on their IPO track w/ Theil?

It probably wouldn't work.

Owning a sports franchise is basically a vanity project. Hire a GM to handle the drafts, trades, and contracts, other folks to handle the marketing, then you basically get to be a super fan who has a legit stake in the team. You don't need to evaluate whether your basketball team should open up a hockey team as well, or if you should only start four players to save on costs. You don't even really need to make money because you're a fan and doing it for fun.

Owning a company is something else entirely, mergers, product lines, etc. You can buy stock and own some in a non-decision making capacity, but to have any input you need a lot more business skills than you would for a franchise.

Re:rid of Ballmer

[dkf]

Owning a sports franchise is basically a vanity project. Hire a GM to handle the drafts, trades, and contracts, other folks to handle the marketing, then you basically get to be a super fan who has a legit stake in the team. You don't need to evaluate whether your basketball team should open up a hockey team as well, or if you should only start four players to save on costs. You don't even really need to make money because you're a fan and doing it for fun.

You need to think more in terms of how to monetize! Media rights. Merchandise. Special access opportunities for other super-fans. Franchise-themed credit card. If being a super-fan is the only thing you can think of, you're wasting that asset...

Re:rid of Ballmer

[Anonymous Coward]

I think he is going to move the team back to Seattle and rename them the Sonics

Re:rid of Ballmer

[dwpro]

what if it was the reverse? successful athletes, coaches, and celebrities bought up startups with their big spending...

I think you just described 38 studios, only it was a baseball player, a business executive, and two authors.

Re:rid of Ballmer

[ganjadude]

im pretty sure a big part of any deal is that the team stay in LA

Re:rid of Ballmer

[globaljustin]

yeah but when the Sonics were purchased part of the deal was that they had to stay in Seattle...so...that shows how binding those agreements are

they'll be back in Seattle

Re:rid of Ballmer

[ganjadude]

true, we can only hope. Theres no need for how many teams there are in cali

Consider the source

[Anonymous Coward]

When HASN'T MS (ET AL.) overpaid HUGELY?

This might be good for the team

[MiniMike]

Their hang time should increase dramatically...

Re:This might be good for the team

[Frosty Piss]

They will change the color of their uniforms to a navy blue color, the team logo and player names will be cryptic...

Meet the new boss...

[frank_adrian314159]

Just as incompetent as the old boss.

Re:Meet the new boss...

[mjwx]

Just as incompetent as the old boss.

I think I've seen this movie, didn't Whoopi Goldberg become coach?

Players do the same.

[Anonymous Coward]

I suppose Sterling has cut a loathsome figure, but how many players do the same? Do you think if a survey was made of social media and other outlets, that one could easily find instances of players making racist comments, using foul language, and paying for lurid PDA encounters with every flavor of the week? Just seems like if equal protection were to be applied, then lots of players would be paying fines, being banned, and losing rings and trophies.

Re:Players do the same.

[phantomfive]

It seems that the NBA just didn't like Donald Sterling. When people don't like you, they look for an excuse to kick you out of their club.

Re:Players do the same.

[Ralph Wiggam]

The people in charge, that make decisions about hiring and firing, need to be held to a higher standard.

Re:Players do the same.

[Anonymous Coward]

Players have been fined for racist or bigoted remarks. E.g. Kobe Bryant, one of the leagues biggest stars, was fined $100,000 for anti-gay remarks (http://edition.cnn.com/2011/SPORT/04/13/bryant.nba.fine/).

Players using foul language during games are typically hit with technical fouls which also carry fines.

Not sure exactly what you mean by "paying for lurid PDA encounters". But, in general, NBA players do not need to pay women for sex, there are plenty of volunteers.

Re:Players do the same.

[Khashishi]

Wrong. This got serious media attention, and Adam Silver was basically forced to act on it.

Re:Players do the same.

[hendrips]

Bill Simmons had an article on ESPN.com about that. He describes in great detail, from a large number of NBA sources and his own experience, how Sterling was always a hated asshole that everyone wanted to get rid of, for at least the past 20 years.

Re:Players do the same.

[phantomfive]

Wrong. This got serious media attention, and Adam Silver was basically forced to act on it.

Yeah, just like the Redskins are forced to change their name because of all the media attention.

Seriously, how many other ways do you think he could have handled this situation?

Re:Players do the same.

[Anonymous Coward]

My point was that Donald Sterling is a standard bearer of the way that the basketball culture is and has been. You're saying that the NBA has policies in place, but I can think of at least one high profile former player who has bragged publicly and recently about using racist language and yet has faced no sanction whatsoever. He said also that other unnamed pals do likewise.

Paying for it or not, a lot of folks would still regard it as extremely sleazy. Other folks might say that it's a victimless crime. But of course, one of the personalities in this saga did volunteer to get HIV, the acquisition of which caused health problems that ended his career. He remains wealthy and can pay for his own treatment, but others usually cannot, and therefore those who did not volunteer are forced to pay.

Re:Players do the same.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, and players who are catapulted into wealth are therefore "people in charge". Apart from their careers in basketball, they will start businesses or make endorsements, and in doing so, they will be making important decisions.

keep in Los Angeles?

[Anonymous Coward]

When Donald Stirling bought the Clippers they were in San Diego, why would a new owner keep them in a borrowed market?

Dribblers!

[Anonymous Coward]

Dribblers! Dribblers! Dribblers! Dribblers! Dribblers! Dribblers!

Yet another mistake by Steve.

Ballmer's speech to the team

[Anonymous Coward]

CONFERENCE FINALS!

Conference Finals!
Conference Finals!
Conference Finals!
Conference Finals!
Conference Finals!

Re:Ballmer's speech to the team

[binarylarry]

Now with Reversi, YES REVERSI!

It's Steve "Baller" Now

[theodp]

NBA Players! NBA Players! NBA Players! I LOVE THIS TEAM!!!!

Re:News for Nerds?

[Anonymous Coward]

Tech CEO (not really a nerd, but sorta) buys basketball team (full of jocks)...it's every bullied high school nerd's revenge fantasy.

Ballmer and Allen

[colinrichardday]

What happens when the Clippers play the Trailblazers?

Re:Ballmer and Allen

[Tablizer]

What happens when the Clippers play the Trailblazers?

Version incompatibilities. The refs will be arguing rules all game.

Free speech

[nurb432]

Takes a hit. I may not agree with that the guy said, but i would still fight for his right to say it.

( yes, i know you are not guaranteed free speech in a private organization, but any org that doesn't honor those concepts as a core value should not be an organization that you give your money too )

Re:Free speech

[Anonymous Coward]

Really? I disagree. Stop using your computer now! unless you want to support my intolerant views! Also don't buy anything with wheat, eggs, dairy, soy, salt, or pork in it. Don't cook your food with gas. And stay away from fruit and vegetables from this hemisphere ( including organics, gmo free, and those raised in your own garden). Also, Living any where north of miami, FL is sketchy. Sorry, my company profits from these sources of revenue, but doesn't tolerate racism.

Re:Free speech

[radarskiy]

He did get his free speech. No one stopped him from saying anything.

Also, the rest of the NBA chose to exercise their free speech by disassociating from him under the terms of the franchise that he *voluntarily* agreed to. Why do you hate contracts?

Re:Free speech

[fnj]

Also, the rest of the NBA chose to exercise their free speech by disassociating from him under the terms of the franchise that he *voluntarily* agreed to. Why do you hate contracts?

Really? You think he agreed to bullshit terms that limited his right to have thoughts and opinions and to reveal them in PRIVATE CONVERSATION never intended for publication? I suppose it's possible. The plague of PC-think is not to be underestimated.

Re:Free speech

[N1AK]

You think he agreed to bullshit terms that limited his right to have thoughts and opinions and to reveal them in PRIVATE CONVERSATION never intended for publication?

Yes; it's not a hard question because he did, whether you're butthurt that people might be held to account for being racists or not. If you're a racist you won't get my money, support or help and that's regardless of how I find out that you're a racist; that's my freedom right there :P

Re:Free speech

[nurb432]

I hate contracts? No, i hate organizations run by assholes that dont honor basic human rights, and are hypocrites.

And i hate stupid people who cant understand what i said the first time and make stuff up to make it sound like they are intelligent.

Waiting

[hduff]

Waiting for the inevitable reboot of the franchise.

Dating myself here but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Deballplayers! deballplayers! Deballplayers! Deballplaye....

BSOD

[Snufu]

Blue Screen-and-roll of Death

This is the year of

[Snufu]

Linux basketball.

Re:News for Nerds?

[just_another_sean]

Yeah but wasn't Ballmer just a jock who had Gates doing his homework for him in exchange for keeping him from getting beat up? Or did I just take Pirates of Silicon Valley way too seriously?

This isn't a sale

[GodfatherofSoul]

This is an *offer*. I had a feeling that Sterling was trying to negotiate in the press when he pointed out he's been offered as much as $2.5B (probably a lie). I don't think he's as dead set against the sale as he says. We'll see that when he gets the price he was asking for.

Taking John Hodgman seriously?

[matbury]

Looks like Steve Ballmer saw John Hodgman's arguments for buying the LA Clippers and took him seriously: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... Now Ballmer can have his very own herd of humans.

Re:Taking John Hodgman seriously?

[matbury]

If your IP address if favoured by our media overlords, there's a better quality version of the video here: http://www.nerdist.com/2014/05...

Re:News for Nerds?

[Ol Olsoc]

You might be shocked to find out, despite the stereotype, that a large number of nerds are interested in professional sports as well.

And a fair number of us even play - not professionally - but passionately. Ice Hockey in my case.

Even better

[NotSoHeavyD3]

Watching him hop up and down court-side like a rabbit on crack because the Clippers just scored.

Re:Even better

[Opportunist]

I
LOVE
THIS
TEAM
YEEEEAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!

(picture this screamed by an overweight man with crescents under his armpits big enough to star in a deodorant commercial as the "before" model)

Re:Even better

[Xest]

Who needs cheerleaders when you can have the comedy of dancing Ballmer?

Re:Even better

[Opportunist]

Dude. Cheerleaders vs. Ballmer. Ok? Think about it.

Hell, even if you're gay the decision is easy!

the key to winning

[slashmydots]

The key to winning every game is DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS! Which apparently Slashdot thinks is too many capital letters but Steve Ballmer does not.

Stupid in life == stupid in life

[Anonymous Coward]

These people rode on the coattails of smart successful people. That they make stupid decisions is actually understandable. Rock-on you rich motherfuckers. 'MERICA!!!!! Fuck the weak and poor!!! Fuck them in to the GROUND because I'm a dumbass sheep that makes bank by following the status quo!!!!

Re:Stupid in life == stupid in life

[Anonymous Coward]

What? You spend all your time playing basketball and don't know how to wear a pair of pants???

Another perspective

[Anonymous Coward]

One Jew sells to another. They do keep it in the family. Never sell to the Goy, they say.

Immediate change in the ball shape.

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Steve Ballmer is going to push for change in the shape of the ball. It should not be a sphere, but more like a chair or something. Something easier to throw.

Re:Immediate change in the ball shape.

[martas]

No no no, it has to be a large white cube, with "BASKETBALL" written in the middle of every side in all caps. Orange spheres are sooo win95.

This IS Great !

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll buy tickets just to see Steve throw his chair onto the court floor and run down to stairs to beat the shit out the ref !

YeeOuza !

Dat du wa uhu uhu we likz it uhu uhu !

Love the local newsreaders

[Snotnose]

Watching the news tonight the anchor said he offered 1.8 million. I kept watching for her to realize she blew it. Nothing. I backed it up and rewatched it, she definately said million, not billion. News today really sucks :(

the fun will continue

[sribe]

Yesterday Sterling said he would sell the team voluntarily. Today Sterling says he opposes the sale and will sue. Tomorrow he will be happy to sell to put the scandal behind him. The next day...

Man, Alzheimer's sucks even for racist bastards..

Celebration time...

[Anonymous Coward]

Three chairs ...errr.. cheers for the new ownership.

It's like porn....

[roc97007]

> "Former Microsoft CEO..."

Oh, please say it again!

> "Former Microsoft CEO..."

One more time!

> "Former Microsoft CEO..."

Man, I can't get enough of that.

You forgot one

[Ecuador]

Go to the first team meeting and start yelling: "Defenders, defenders, defenders!"

Re:You forgot one

[x0]

Go to the first team meeting and start yelling: "Defenders, defenders, defenders!"

I would think it would be: "Dribble! Dribble! Dribble!"

m

Re:You forgot one

[Anonymous Coward]

Go to the first team meeting and start yelling: "Defenders, defenders, defenders!"

I would think it would be: "Dribble! Dribble! Dribble!"

m

shame on you! a prostate problem is nothing to make fun of.

Ballers!

[ichthus]

"Ballers! Ballers! Ballers! Ballers! Ballers! Ballers! Ballers! Ballers! Ballers! Ballers! Ballers! Ballers! Ballers! Ballers! Ballers! Ballers!"

*collapses on court floor*

"Ball... *gasp* ers. Bah. ha. hhhhhaa"

Re:News for Nerds?

[Fjandr]

Ballmer is the quintessential A-type jock personality. He's CEO of a tech company because of that. He's not in any sense a nerd, geek, or otherwise intellectual character.

Bobby Knight

[Anonymous Coward]

Welcomes you to the chair throwing club

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jc2ESr43PY&feature=kp

Re:Bobby Knight

[avandesande]

You beat me to it by a few seconds.... :-) maybe he should hire him as a coach?

Re:Bobby Knight

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe that's where Ballmer got the idea from, if he's as big a basketball fan as he claims?

Re:News for Nerds?

[Opportunist]

Not even sorta. He was a CEO. That it was a company dealing with "computer stuff" was mostly coincidental.

Most CEOs actually think that it really does not matter what they're selling, everything is sold the same way according to them. Yes, they don't have a clue what they're selling. They think they needn't have one.

Chair throwing and dev days monkey act...

[Anonymous Coward]

At least chair throwing the monkey act will be appropriate now...

How do you release a basketball team too early and so unrefined no one wants it?

I suspect we'll find out....

Re:Chair throwing and dev days monkey act...

[Anonymous Coward]

At least chair throwing the monkey act will be appropriate now...

At least chair throwing AND the monkey act will be appropriate now...
Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers...

Likely outcome

[istartedi]

"Players, players, players..."; but he'll charge them $3000 to see the contract. Chair-throwing at every game of course. Best of all, slightly different and inferior version of plays used by the Lakers. Also, brown uniforms.

OK. I'm done now. No, wait. Spy devices embedded in every ticket, which may or may not get you into the arena due to various glitches.

OK. I'm done... I think.

Poetic Justice

[Original Cynic]

Congratulations, you just doubled Sterlings net worth. Ballmer just proved that you are a piss poor businessman. You overpaid for the clippers by 100%. To the NBA you now have an owner who makes Sterling look like a choirboy. To the Clippers welcome to 20+ more years in the cellar. Yep the only winner is the idiot you were targeting. .

According to BLS...

[Gordo_1]

$12.5M in 1981 would only be worth $32.6M today (http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=12500&year1=1981&year2=2014). While that's certainly nothing to scoff at, back in 1981, it seems that an NBA franchise was well within the range of many 1%ers, whereas today it seems that a franchise is really only in the domain of the 0.01%. What I can't figure out is, what happened to NBA (and sports franchises in general) over the last 33 years to have out-paced inflation by so much? Even if you think Ballmer paid 3-4x what it's really worth, the rate of growth is still an order of magnitude greater than inflation over that period.

Re:According to BLS...

[tsqr]

What I can't figure out is, what happened to NBA (and sports franchises in general) over the last 33 years to have out-paced inflation by so much?

Last season, the 30 NBA teams averaged $200,000,000 each in media revenue. If the Clippers can meet that average, it's a 10% ROI just from that particular revenue stream.

Re:According to BLS...

[Anonymous Coward]

The league was not in very good shape coming out of the 70s. The players were constantly embroiled in drug scandals. The finals were on tape delay instead of live. It really was the low point for the league.

Most people credit the emergence of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and later Michael Jordan as saving the league. The commissioner, David Stern, who took over in 1984 and just recently stepped down, played no small part as well. The league has also done a good job at using the global appeal of basketball to their advantage.

But, really, a great deal of the expansion in the value of the franchises happened in the last few years. In fact, a couple of years ago the league had to step in and buy a franchise (New Orleans) from a troubled owner who could not find a buyer. It took a while to get a buyer. The recent expansion in value is widely credited to two factors: first, the re-negotiation of the CBA (collective bargaining agreement) with the player's union which greatly favored the owners; second, the explosion in value of TV rights. (Sports, as live events, are relatively immune to DVRs and are greatly valued by TV stations.)

For the Clippers in particular, you are buying a franchise that is expected to complete for a championship in the second biggest television market in the nation. They have two of the most marketable stars in sports (Blake Griffin and Chris Paul). They are one of the hottest properties in sports.

Re:According to BLS...

[Anonymous Coward]

What happened is, morons are willing to pay huge amounts to watch sports on TV,and Television broadcasters are willing to pay huge amounts to carry them. Plus, every damn cable/satellite subscription contains a subsidized amount for sports channels, making everyone pay it.
If we had a'lacarte pricing on television cable/satellite/broadcast pricing plans, we would all pay less ( except sports fans, who would pay much more),and the end result would be decreased prices of this type.

Re:This is the year of [Linux ball]

[Tablizer]

The Alaskan Penguins?

They can all see the trophy from their houses.

become a racist, earn 2 billion dollars

[Anonymous Coward]

Not a bad deal for Donald Sterling. He should have talked bad about black people years ago.

Re:become a racist, earn 2 billion dollars

[Anonymous Coward]

He's been talking bad about black people for 30 years now. Everybody knew it and didn't care. The NAACP gave him a lifetime achievement award for NOT fixing black people's apartments, and was about to give him another one until this tape came out.

This whole racist angle is BS. I'm not saying Sterling isn't scum. He is. Everyone else involved is just as much scum.

Larry's Loss!

[Anonymous Coward]

It isn't so much that I care Steve Ballmer placed the winning bid to become the new owner of the team. It's that Larry Ellison's bid was too low and he lost! Suck it Larry, you cheap loser!

(Unless Larry's plan all along was to make Steve Ballmer pay more for the team, of course)

Ballmer is jealous of Paul Allen

[l0n3s0m3phr34k]

LOL, he must be jealous of Paul Allen owning the Blazers. Ballmer will never be as awesome as Allen of course, and Allen being on a recent Portlandia skit was side-splittingly funny...“I brought this idea to my financial advisors and they said no,” Allen said. “But I’m hoping you say yes.” Funny for one he doesn't need anyone's money as he's super loaded, two the actual uniform has their airport code (PDX) and a horrid line drawing with a small campfire on it...sometimes Portlandia's skits aren't the best but when they hit the nail they really drive it in! Now if only IFC would do another season of The Increasingly Poor Choices of Todd Margret! And MASSIVE PROPS to Allen for funding Scaled Composites for the X-Prize, if only more wealthy people like him invested in space aerotech...

AMERICA GETS TO SEE THE FLYING CHAIR VIDEO

[Anonymous Coward]

American public, meet Steve Balmer and his FLYING CHAIR VIDEO!

Greenspan Put & Helicopter Ben

[Anonymous Coward]

>1981: $12.5 million
>2014: $2,000 million
But theres no inflation. ;-)

Welcome

[Anonymous Coward]

LA Clippys

As long as Magic Johnson doesn't get it

[gelfling]

I'm fine. Who cares?

Re:News for Nerds?

[MachineShedFred]

Most CEOs actually think that it really does not matter what they're selling, everything is sold the same way according to them. Yes, they don't have a clue what they're selling. They think they needn't have one.

And this explains Microsoft's "lost decade" perfectly.

My guess:

[fredrated]

Sterling will pay little or no taxes.

I can see the first player/owner now....

[cjjjer]

"Players" "Players" "Players" "Players" "Players"

Well...

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's see how well they can play basketball with a mobile phone interface slapped on top of them.

democrat hypocrisy (+assorted rant)

[Anonymous Coward]

The democrats haven't changed. They still have blatant snobbish racists among their ranks. Their closet racists cover for the publicly discovered ones, etc. Clippers sold from one asshole democrat to another. Republicans are too easy to pick on and have an equal share of dumb asses. The former British PM Tony Blair was worse than GWB and that says a lot. I feel better now.

Thank you.

Bolt down all the seats

[Anonymous Coward]

Somebody please mug him and rip out his vocal cords, for the love of ear-canals everywhere. This asshole needs to be stopped.

Re:News for Nerds?

[Opportunist]

MS did what IBM did in the 80s. They thought that they are indispensable. That people can't ignore them. That people will buy their product, even if they come late to the party.

IBM ignored the emerging PC market. They actually considered it "beneath" them to produce computers for small businesses or even home users. Computers at home. That can never catch on. Up until the 70s, computers were big, ugly closets that were tucked away safely in the basement of big companies with (dumb) terminals connected to and dependent on them. That was their market, that was their expertise, and that was what they wanted to sell. When they noticed that the PC market took off and that people (and companies!) wanted those machines rather than their big closets, they jumped onto it and tried to force people to take on THEIR flavor. OS/2, you might remember the system. It was in some way superior to Windows, but in the end it was too bulky, too "heavy" and not really well supported. Their downfall was their assumption that "you can't ignore IBM", that you MUST buy their flavor even if you already bought the other one, and that manufacturers HAVE to dance to their tune. They didn't notice that not only did the time move past them but that people actually were very HAPPY to have an alternative because IBM had a nasty tendency to abuse its position of power.

Sounds familiar?

Replace IBM with MS, PC with tablet (or search engine, or MP3-player, or ... well, pretty much any other technology MS tried to embrace-extend-extinguish in the past decade) and you have the same story again.

Good move for Ballmer

[Anonymous Coward]

He's moving from an industry where he's widely considered a dimwit to another where he will pretty much be a paragon of virtue (when compared with all those old, racist assholes who own teams).

Re:News for Nerds?

[Richy_T]

I'm sure large numbers are interested in many things (cars, hiking, motorcycles, music, fashion etc) but that doesn't make them suitable fodder for this site.

I can see it now...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Defenders, defenders, defenders, defenders, defenders, defenders. Wooooooooh!"

Speaking of the Trailblazers

[Anonymous Coward]

From reading all of this, bit of personal trvia here: I found out that a former NCAA teammate of mine's their General Manager (Mr. Neil Olshey, whom I lettered in the sport of Lacrosse with @ our mutual alma mater) - he always loved basketball (more than Lacrosse I suspect due to his career currently)... small world!

* "Will wonders NEVER cease..."

APK

P.S.=> Neil, on the off-chance you read this (doubt it, but you never know): "Perfect assist" behind-the-back to you from "yours truly" in 1984 (they're missing 10 points of mine from that year by the by on the scoring charts, wrote Mr. Kevin McNeill about it in June 2007 - he admits those points are not assigned/accounted for that year to ANY player, & Diehl was contacted too - still "nada" - can't believe it! They've got my scores from 1985 in though @ least...)...

... apk

vaporware

[globaljustin]

from the 38 Studios wiki:

"The state of Rhode Island filed a lawsuit in November 2012 against Schilling, Stokes, and other backers of 38 Studios.[25]"

They admitted wrongdoing in 2014...vaporware on the public dime!

Sonics?

[Anonymous Coward]

What a crock of shit.

Spend $2B and you can't even bring the "Sonics" back to Seattle.

I came here for chair throwing jokes

[Anonymous Coward]

don't let me down.

Re:News for Nerds?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ballmer is a hardcore math graduate who allegedly did really well in college. And supposedly has a very high IQ. The clowning around he is known for is a pose.

Old owner = racist, New owner = ???

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it's a safe assumption that Microsoft had a very small percentage of African American employees. The NBA is OK with this? I guess all they care about is money, and they forgot about why they wanted Sterling to sell the team.

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[MoneyMetho]

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[MoneyMetho]

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