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Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going

By | June 29, 2011, 3:24pm PDT

Summary: Apologies to Jennifer Hudson (and Jennifer Holiday), but Microsoft CEO Ballmer is telling folks he’s not going anywhere — at least not for the time being.

Apologies to Jennifer Hudson (and Jennifer Holiday), but Microsoft CEO Ballmer is telling folks he’s not going anywhere — at least not for the time being.

Many Microsoft critics, including many Wall Streeters , have been wondering aloud whether Ballmer is the right man to lead Microsoft these days. At a Seattle Rotary Club meeting on June 29, when asked the question yet again, Ballmer had an official response.

“YOU TELL ME if I lack energy or conviction, or we’re not driving all the change we need to drive,” Ballmer told the audience, according to GeekWire.

(Listen to the Ballmer sound clip via GeekWire here.)

Ballmer said in 2008 that he planned to stay on at Microsoft for nine or ten more years.

As the Seattle Times noted, Ballmer repeated again the key areas where Microsoft is focusing right now. He said it’s all about touch, natural language understanding and the cloud. (And Windows, of course. Can’t forget that Microsoft is still about “Windows, WIndows, WIndows” to quote Ballmer.)

Ballmer also seemed to have provided an earnings preview to the Rotary Club audience during his remarks today. According to the Times, he told audience members:

“The products we have are difference makers,” Ballmer said. “They’re the reason we will make more than $70 billion this year and, give or take, $26 billlion to $27 billion in profits.”

Update: Microsoft officials have provided an exact transcript of Ballmer’s remarks. Here’s the slightly amended statement:

“We’re building the products that we hope are the difference makers. We’ve been very fortunate. We’ve made bets. We’ve built products. We’ve made the difference. There’s a reason why we’ll do almost $70 billion in revenue this year, and we’ll make over 20-whatever, $26-27 billion in profits. There are reasons — we made the right bets and we’re making the bets for the future.”

(For its previous fiscal year, Microsoft made $62.5 billion, with $18.8 billion in net income. And Microsoft’s operating income was $24.1 billion for that year.)

Microsoft’s fiscal 2011 ends on June 30, tomorrow. The company isn’t slated to provide its earnings report until July 21.

Microsoft’s stock price has been higher than usual this week, though it isn’t exactly clear why. I guess we can rule out an immediate Ballmer succession plan as one of the potential reasons, however.

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Topics

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft Corp., Financial Accounting, Investment, Training And Development, Human Capital Management, Finance, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Mary Jo Foley

Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

Disclosure

Mary-Jo Foley

Freelance journalist/blogger Mary Jo Foley has nothing to disclose. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). I do not own Microsoft stock or stock in any of its partners or competitors. I have no business ventures that are sponsored by/funded by Microsoft or any of its partners or competitors.

Biography

Mary-Jo Foley

Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 25 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.

Got a tip? Send her an email with your rants, rumors, tips and tattles. Confidentiality guaranteed.

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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
makrekdw73-24353635615163652143356448933213 10th Nov
gyuomo,good post!
View in thread
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
pedroroque 29th Jun
Clearly, $26 billion in proffits means doomsday for microsoft. He should be fired for making that kind of money!
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
1773 29th Jun
@pedroroque happy
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And the rest of the industry performance?
Richard Flude 29th Jun
A lack of energy or conviction has never been Ballmer's weaknesses, but to argue MS is at the top of their game at the moment is pretty hard.

MS continues to make large profits from the same products : Windows Desktop and Office. Windows Server has a few wins but largely thanks to Windows Desktop (e.g. AD and integration : file sharing).

However the growth isn't in these sectors anymore. Desktops are saturated, servers very competitive (particularly once Windows removed). Despite tens of billions poured into R&D MS is still Windows & Office.

By creating entirely new markets others are showing the way. MS needs to get a return on their R&D investments. A game controller as THE major product launch for 2010 simply doesn't cut it.

Challenges are already in the market to rock MS's desktop monopoly (mobile) and MS hasn't communicated it's strategy at all (.Net/Silverlight or HTML5).

Pointing to 5% revenue growth (and stagnant share price or almost a decade) when competitors are announcing 25+% (shares going through the roof) isn't something I'd be praising him for.
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
ShamooToo Updated - 30th Jun
@Richard Flude

Agreed. Well said. Momentum can take someone far, but now that the engines are running out of gas we'll see where the car goes. I have hopes for Microsoft, but having to pay off another sagging company to use your (for sale/for profit) product is not a good sign. What will their world be like when Win client and Office revenues evaporate? Win 8 had better be something absolutely appealing to the masses.
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
bmonsterman 30th Jun
@Richard Flude,

5% revenue growth is what it is. You can't put lipstick on a pig. I'll agree with you on that.

Mobile is not poised to rock MS's desktop monopoly. They are two different products with some overlap. If anything in the market is threatening MS's desktop monopoly it's cloud computing. Microsoft will be a player in the cloud computing future with Azure. They won't be as dominant as they are on the desktop, but they will sure be relevant.

As far as .NET/Silverlight or HTML5, from a developer platform perspective, who else has communicated their direction with HTML5? I haven't seen alot of tools from Oracle on the subject either.
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Richard, you are wrong...
jk_10 Updated - 30th Jun
@Richard Flude I bet a large majority of analysts will agree with you, but I don't. First the stock price is not an argument, it is largely based on wall street's false prospective of the MSFT's future, and they are wrong, no matter how MSFT performs, its stock won't go anywhere until Win8, when the last cloud over MSFT's sky clear up. You know what that is: the mobile. MSFT still make most of money from Windows and Office, isn't that true for Google, IBM, Oracle..., ...? You mention growth is moving to other areas like: Cloud, Mobile. True, and I believe MSFT will make a lot of money in that area in comming a few years. Contradict to popular belief, the cash cows in Windows and Office, Servers are still very healthy as far as we can see. And from what I can tell, MSFT cloud will be dominant force in the market. I also expect Win8 will clear you concern about mobile.

Again, you mentioned microsoft stock price stand still for a decade. True. But you need to take a closer look. It is a case for most big tech firms, until the start recovery year ago. 1 year ago, msft stands $31, and going up with other firms and the DOW, NASDAQ. If the stock goes with business performance, it should in mid $40s now. What happened during the year? Tablets and phones. People are saying msft has lost in smartphone, and no strategy in tablet. That's false. I don't argue with you on this, you say what you see. But there are things don't see.
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
animageofmine1 30th Jun
@Richard Flude very well said, crisp and clear. However, just to look from a positive side, they are leading on some fronts like Office, Xbox, Visual Studio and I would also like to add SQL Server since it is one of the hidden/not very well known cash cow of MSFT. Also, the quality of products have improved than what it used to be (generally buggy), which is another positive thing. I am not saying that this is because of Ballmer, but I sometimes do think that managing so many departments single handedly could be a tough job. MSFT is huge compared to Apple/Google and managing could be a challenge than what we think/imagine.
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Hit the nail on the head...
HollywoodDog 30th Jun
@Richard Flude There's no shame in having the business model of a water utility - stable product that never changes, guaranteed dividends - if you are not able to drive change and create new markets.

I think the evidence is now in that Steven A. Ballmer cannot create new markets and drive change.

How much better off would shareholders have been if instead of making himself the center of attention by splurging on Bings and bangs and Zunes and Kins and the litany of other failed crap, he had instead just made the dividend a hell of a lot higher, fired about half the company, and focused like a laser only on Windows and Office?

By the way, he can run his fat mouth all day about whether he's staying or going - it's not his decision to make. It's the shareholders.

Perhaps BillG is loyal to his friend and doesn't really care about the financial well being of a lot of shareholders he's never met and never will meet. If that's true, Ballmer could be there forever and ever. Or rather, until Microsoft's 'General Motors moment'.
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Message has been deleted.
i8thecat3 Updated - 30th Jun
  • Flagged
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jk_10, he only sees what he wants
Will Pharaoh 30th Jun
@jk_10
It not worth arguing with Richard Flude, he is a die-hard Apple fanboy (possibly on their payroll?) so you can't point out things he missed, but understand he left them out for a reason -

They don't bolster his statements, they actually detract from it.
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
bitcrazed 30th Jun
@Angrypug - I'd argue that the engines ran low on gas circa 2005 when Longhorn was cancelled, Vista started as an emergency recovery project, Gates decided to begin transitioning out of the company and the old internal fiefdoms started to crumble.

It's taken a few years, but the company has done a pretty good job over the last couple of years to start rebuilding itself internally now that most of the old guard has gone. Just look at their recent performance: Win7 is a stellar success, Kinect took everyone by surprise, XBox is out-selling all other consoles, Office 2010 is doing gangbusters and WinPhone has a really good solid step back into the mobile market, etc.

The company is poised to really start driving forward. Many have forgotten just how driven Microsoft can be when it's under pressure. The slumbering giant is awakening and everyone better be ready for a fight!
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Microsoft's share price has broadly tracked the Nasdaq
WilErz Updated - 30th Jun
@ Richard Flude

It's intellectually dishonest to compare the growth rates (profit/revenue/share price) of a large, successful firm with the growth rates of relatively new, small or previously failing firms (an example of the latter being Apple). Microsoft remain one of the most profitable firms in the world, and their share price during Ballmer's tenure has broadly followed the Nasdaq (even with the regulatory burden imposed by competition authorities, which other IT firms haven't had to deal with).

Anyone who expected Microsoft's growth rates in the 00s to duplicate the growth rates of the 90s was clueless. If they had done, Microsoft's market capitalisation would be far above the annual GDP of any country in the world, and well on the way to exceeding the annual GDP of the world. It's astonishing that so many people make these nonsensical growth rate comparisons without even thinking about the context.
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Another point
WilErz 30th Jun
Microsoft's return on equity is 44.0, compared with 27.4 for the software industry as a whole. Apple's return on equity is 38.8, compared with 39.4 for the PC industry as a whole.

The higher the ROE, the more effective a firm's management are at generating profit from equity (i.e. the money invested by shareholders). It's only really meaningful within industries and not across them, and Microsoft do far better than the average for their industry, whilst Apple are only about average for theirs.
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It it fair to expect new markets from Microsoft?
HollywoodDog 30th Jun
@Richard Flude "It's intellectually dishonest to compare the growth rates (profit/revenue/share price) of a large, successful firm with the growth rates of relatively new, small or previously failing firms (an example of the latter being Apple)."

Apple not only has much higher growth than Microsoft, it made whole new markets - MP3 player ecosystem, smartphone ecosystem (which everyone else is copying), and finally the tablet ecosystem that is the envy of the world.

Microsoft had more money than God and twice as much engineering talent. Why did they fail at each of these markets?

Mary Jo Foley once stated that Microsoft was 'not about to sit idly by while Apple runs away with this [tablet] market'.

They appear to have flailed and failed and made a lot of guttural noises as Apple ran away with that market.

Is market capitalization a fair comparison? Is innovative product a fair comparison? Is successful execution of each product they attempt a fair comparison? Is churn rate of high skill employees a fair comparison?

Is overall return of value for shareholders the ultimate fair comparison?

Is whether your statements later turn out to be embarrassing or not a fair comparison?
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Straw men
WilErz 1st Jul
@ HollywoodDog

You're just setting up straw men so you can knock them down. I didn't claim Microsoft were more successful in the 00s as Apple, or are more successful today. I pointed out that a comparison of growth rates between firms starting at the top (large and highly profitable) and firms starting at the bottom (loss making and close to insolvency) is intellectually dishonest. It is -- extremely so.

Apple's management have done a spectacular job of turning round Apple, building on the overwhelming success of the iPod, and Microsoft clearly failed with the late and underwhelming Zune. At the same time, it isn't obvious to me that a software firm like Microsoft should have been expected to become the leader in a consumer electronics market like music players. Sony arguably missed the boat, but consumer electronics has never been a core business for Microsoft. Moreover, Apple created the iPod to help sell Macs. They had no expectation that it would actually supplant the Mac as their core business, so there was certainly an element of luck involved.

Apple are well ahead of Microsoft in mobile phones and tablets too, and those are markets where Microsoft should have some competence. At the same time, pre-iPhone market leaders like Nokia and Rim have been hit by the iPhone onslaught too (and the Android imitation), so Microsoft weren't the only ones taken by surprise. As things stand, Apple have clearly got much more momentum in these relatively high-growth markets than Microsoft, but Microsoft can't win everything. (Besides which, you could have said the same thing about graphical operating systems in the 80s, and we all know how that turned out.)

Looking at Microsoft, Ballmer has kept them at the top of the software industry, achieved solid profit growth and kept the share price broadly in line with the Nasdaq. Under Ballmer, Windows Server overtook Unix (measured by server hardware revenue) around 2005/06, stayed well ahead of Linux and now commands the majority of the server market, both by hardware revenue and by units. Server software has become a third cash cow for Microsoft (along with desktop Windows and Office). In consumer devices and even tablet PCs, on the other hand, Microsoft have done poorly (apart from Xbox and Kinect).

Even with their consumer failures, Microsoft have still produced considerably more profit over Ballmer's tenure than Apple have over Jobs's. Apple are now in front, and if they stay there (and Jobs remains healthy), that will eventually change, but the idea that not doing as well as Apple (which applies to just about every firm in existence right now) constitutes failure is absurd. Performing in line with the broader market when you're at the top of your industry (and one of the most profitable firms in the world) simply isn't failure by any reasonable standard.

Is Ballmer to blame for Microsoft's relatively poor performance in most consumer markets? I don't know. With the changes he's made to management over the last few years, and the departure of much of the Microsoft old guard management, we'll probably soon find out. Windows 8 on tablets and the Windows/Nokia partnership are the big tests.
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Investors can care less about profits, they want dividends...
cosuna Updated - 30th Jun
@pedroroque : I think you are hidden on a cave, or not aware that the public company rationale does not revolve around productivity, revenue or profits.

It revolves around ROI, dividends and market cap. If your company reports 26 billion Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA), which is most certainly what they are reporting, it doesn't translate to much at the stock market.

Take a look at LinkedIn, with stock price at US$90 with profit of only $93.9 million. Or Facebook with a market cap of $25 billion against the $219 billion from Microsoft. Talk about an underperformer.

That's the reasons CEOs go. Not revenue not profit. Why? 'Cause that can go in an instant. Ask Acer.
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
SoYouSaid 8th Jul
because Loverock Davidson told me to stay the course ........ annd I will always do what ever Loverock tells me to do. happy
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
Cylon Centurion 29th Jun
He certainly doesn't lack the energy, but Ballmer has missed quite a few tech booms.
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
animageofmine1 Updated - 30th Jun
@Cylon Centurion agree, he seems to have problem of vision, which is one huge and single factor is hindering Microsoft from leading the market in many areas. Just to give an example, if Windows phone would have been in market before iPhone, I have no doubt it would have done so well. Bill Gates pointed multiple times in early 2000's that tablet is next big thing, but since he started concentrating on his own Belinda/Gates Foundation, I think he hardly bothered to focus on Microsoft and Ballmer took it lightly, point is Bill Gates had vision, but that does not seem to be the case with Ballmer.

Bill should have had better friends..:-) lol..
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
windozefreak 30th Jun
@animageofmine1
Kids coming here to cry about their spilled kool-aid again. Why all the concerned about balmeer from none Microsoft owners and/or enthusist. I recognize some of the names and you pretend to be Apple and Linux users. But stop crying, I have said many times that as long as Mr. Ballmer continues to make money and carry out Microsoft's mision, he can stay until he is carried out in a box. Now it appears that he believe and/or has been told the same thing. So, put away your hankies and do not cry for Mr. Ballmer. Put your Microsoft face and game on and enjoy electronic bliss! Just saying!
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MJ, Having read your earlier post today...
CustomComputers 29th Jun
We were hoping you had a scoop. Some few hours later this news! Guess someone will die; SB or Microsoft Corp. image.
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Why would he go? He's on quite an impressive roll. Windows7
Johnny Vegas 29th Jun
Office 2010, Bing, Sharepoint, Windows Phone, Kinect, Azure, etc. etc. it's been success upon success upon success of late across all of MS. Nice job Steve!!
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
ShamooToo 30th Jun
@Johnny Vegas

It may seem that way to some, but how many of these products are Win-client dependent or have required huge some of investment not set to recoup for a number of years yet (if at all)? Aside from Azure, I wouldn't be so sure of long term success, where the focus needs to be. I wish them success, but they're not very well positioned given their size and war chest. I fear they may be at the very top of their hill, where the horizon levels out before the inevitable descent. You may be right and I hope you are, but objectively they're not out of the woods.
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I don't get it
Michael Alan Goff 29th Jun
How is Steve Ballmer any worse than Bill Gates? Firsthand accounts of Gates' style of leadership involve him stopping people during their presentation with such lines as: "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" and, "Why don't you just give up your options and join the Peace Corps?"

And we have to remember. Ballmer took over in 2000. What have we seen since he took over? I wouldn't blame him for ME, or give him credit for 2k or XP. Vista was... not actually horrible. It was definitely better than XP. Windows 7, the two Xbox systems, the Kinect, Windows Phone 7, the Kin, and the incoming Windows 8. Oh, and IE 7-9 (with 10 coming within a year or so).

Most of those things have been good.
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It's all about shareholder value
WilErz 30th Jun
@ goff256

The question is how well they return value to shareholders (the sole job of management under the US system), not whether they're nice blokes you'd like to have a beer with down at the pub. By the latter measure, I'm not sure any of Gates (at least in his Microsoft days), Jobs, Zuckerberg, Page, Ellison, etc. would score very highly. By the former measure, they've all done spectacularly well. Ballmer hasn't, but it isn't a fair comparison for two reasons.

First of all, it's pretty clear that when Bill Gates realised Paul Allen lacked the same passion for Microsoft that he had, he turned to Ballmer as essentially a new partner in running the company. Ballmer undoubtedly had a lot of input on the business side of things during the 80s/90s, before eventually becoming CEO. Even if he deserves blame for Microsoft's stagnant share price in the 00s, he almost certainly deserves some credit for Microsoft's exceptional share price growth in the 90s.

Second, expectations are crucial to share price movements. A stagnant share price means Microsoft have been doing more or less what markets expected them to do -- no surprises implies no substantial change in the share price. During the 90s, Microsoft's share price exploded (allowing them to overtake Apple, IBM and briefly become the world's most valuable firm) because nobody expected Microsoft to generate the kind of profit they did. By the time Ballmer took over, the reputation had been established: everyone expected Microsoft to generate enormous and steadily growing profit year after year, so this was already reflected in the share price.

Things were made worse for Ballmer by the IT bubble, which peaked right around the time he took over. Starting from the peak of the bubble, the only IT firms capable of achieving high share price growth had to either be relatively new/unknown (e.g. Google) or viewed as failing (e.g Apple). Management of a new/unknown firm can prove themselves and be rewarded with a share price surge. Management of a failing firm can do the same by turning the firm round (even if the 'surge' may only reverse an earlier share price collapse). Management of a large/successful firm can't be rewarded with a share price surge, because the it's already happened.

Even if Microsoft had managed to add all of Apple's and Google's profit to their own, the share price growth would have been relatively small, and certainly nothing like the explosions experienced by Apple and to a lesser extent Google. Indeed, to put things into perspective, at the peak of the IT bubble, Microsoft's market cap was higher in real terms than the current market caps of Microsoft, Apple and Google *combined*. Ballmer didn't cause the IT bubble, and nor did he cause it to burst, but he's being judged against Microsoft's share price performance during the bubble, and against the performance of new or previously failing firms in the post-bubble era. These simply aren't reasonable comparisons.

Looking at how many IT firms have gone from leadership to collapse, I think Ballmer's ability to maintain Microsoft's steady course has been impressive. Maybe he's missed some upside opportunities, but unlike Apple or IBM in the 90s (and many more before and after), Microsoft haven't faltered on the downside. That alone is quite an achievement, especially if it's sustained through the rise of sub-PC devices.
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
snoop0x7b 30th Jun
@goff256 2K was release in 1999...

Vista was not better than XP.
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
windozefreak 30th Jun
@snoop0x7b
Yes it was!
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Windows is made of two parts
WilErz 30th Jun
@ snoop0x7b

There's the part written by Microsoft (the OS and some device drivers) and the part written by hardware vendors (the rest of the device drivers). The Microsoft part of Vista was and is considerably better than XP. Many early device drivers from hardware vendors, however, were worse than their XP counterparts. This happened because Microsoft introduced a new (better) driver model in Vista, but a lot of hardware vendors failed to keep up (especially for hardware nearing the replacement point). Their old XP drivers were mature and relatively stable, whilst their new drivers for Vista were sometimes of poor quality.

As an OS, Vista was better than XP. As a whole product, including the OS and the device drivers, it sometimes was and sometimes wasn't: Vista with good drivers was better than XP; Vista with bad drivers was worse.
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
eferron@... 9th Jul
@goff256 C'mon goff256 now you just being a fanboy Kin and Vista were nightmares for the company. Windows Phone 7 is a great platform Microsoft has long road ahead for the phone platform. However deals like Nokia and Skype help in a big way. No speculation on execution because you just do not know what goes on inside of Redmond. If you take the two companies for what they are today the Outlook on the mobile and phone platforms look very promising.
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
shellcodes_coder 29th Jun
That means Microsoft stock will def. be flushed in the toilet as is the case right now and on the other hand look at the Apple's stock
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
Michael Alan Goff 29th Jun
I love it when people talk about stock without knowing how the stock market actually works.
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We need your market insight; please enlighten us
Richard Flude 29th Jun
How's Ballmer staying going to improve MS stock (stagnant the time he's been CEO) comparative to Apple?
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
ScorpioBlue 30th Jun
I love it when people talk about stock without knowing how the stock market actually works.

Look who's talking.
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
Michael Alan Goff 30th Jun
When Apple has as many stock out there as Microsoft does, your point will hold some merit. Until then, you can't really say anything. Microsoft has over eight billion shares of stock, Apple has less than 1 billion shares of stock.

Microsoft pays regular dividends, Apple pays nothing out.
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
kirovs@... 30th Jun
@goff256
Numbers of shares by itself means nothing. You just got F on investing 101.
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
ScorpioBlue 30th Jun
@goff256
I wouldn't want you to be my financial investor. You'd probably look at the nearest 'up arrow' and say, "invest here"
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I don't know whether to be happy or not
HollywoodDog 29th Jun
On the one hand, Microsoft has failed so many times that it's lost its likability and one kind of wants to see it fail, in which case Ballmers staying to run in to the ground is good. On the other, it's a shame to see a once great company being run in to the ground. The sheer waste of it.

If Steve Ballmer had never shown up to work and a potted plant had sat in his chair all this time, the company would have made more money and the shareholders would have been better off.

But hey, it's all about Steve Ballmer, right?
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
Michael Alan Goff 29th Jun
How is he running it into the ground?

They're making more money, and better products, than before.
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
ShamooToo 30th Jun
@goff256

Trees / forest forest / trees....
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Failure to capture any new markets,
HollywoodDog 30th Jun
@goff256 ... tens of billions wasted on failure products, fails on netbooks and tablets.

Take a look at the stock price.

Microsoft also failed on products it just shouldn't have failed on; tablets, music downloading, MP3 players, etc.

To quote one of the many intelligent executives Ballmer has thrown overboard (like it's all their fault) 'you cant count on your installed base forever'.

What you can count on forever is that arrogant moron putting his own personal interests ahead of the shareholders, and apparently getting away with it until it's too late for the company.

Look at the market cap of Microsoft and of Apple in '97 and today.

The market appears to be rendering its verdict.
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
Michael Alan Goff 30th Jun
@goff256

Their stock price is irrelevant. The entire stock market is irrelevant. Microsoft and Apple are comparable in profits, which is really all that matters.

Oh, that, and products.

Microsoft's products are getting better and better. Were there some failures? Of course, I'm sure Apple has had some failures as well. All companies have failures.
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HollywoodDog, I didn't know that stock price was an indicator
Will Pharaoh 30th Jun
@HollywoodDog
of how much money they made. Facebook is worth 70 billion without being a publicly traded company, but how's that possible because they don't have stock?

I'm not understanding your reference - you mean Microsoft didn't earn multi-billions in profits because of their stock price?

That is what you're saying right?
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I don't think I can discern what you're asking.
HollywoodDog 30th Jun
@Will Pharaoh Microsoft made a lot of profits. They would have made those profits if Ballmer were replaced by a potted plant because the money is all revenue off of established products.

Stock price is an indicator that Microsoft isn't growing, in an environment where many others were growing.

"Facebook is worth 70 billion without being a publicly traded company"

Facebook is a pig in a poke, and there's no telling what it's worth. They won't talk about their numbers. There's a reason for that.

The keychain in my pocket is worth 70 billion. I won't show it to you or tell you why it's worth that much, but oh boy is it valuable.
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Tosh
WilErz 30th Jun
@ HollywoodDog

In the 80s, IBM and Apple had very successful established businesses. During the 90s, both came close to insolvency (IBM early in the decade and Apple later on). There will always be competitors trying to take away profitable businesses. Keeping them at bay isn't something a 'potted plant' can do.

The share price mostly tells you about changes in expectations, not about performance. Microsoft's profit growth has outpaced general economic growth by a wide margin, but everyone expected it to do that. Microsoft's profit was also already very high when Ballmer took over, so even a large increase in profit in money terms is a relatively small growth rate.

Apple were making substantial losses when Jobs took over, and nobody expected they'd have hits like the iPod and its offshoots (iPhone, iPad). Moreover, it's much easier achieve a higher *rate* of profit growth from a low base than from a high one.

A frequent mistake people make is to compare growth rates (profit, share price, etc.) without considering the context, and to imagine that they can remain constant. A constant profit growth rate above the rate of overall economic growth would mean that a firm's profit would eventually be larger than the entire economy. It's obvious that that can't happen.

The above problem isn't actually so far away either. Apple fans like to contrast Apple's share price growth with Microsoft's relatively stagnant share price, but if Microsoft's share price had grown at the same rate as Apple's since December 1997, Microsoft would today have a market value higher than the annual GDP of the United States.
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
windozefreak 30th Jun
@HollywoodDog
Say Mr. Dog,
You ar one of those that hate all things Microsoft, at least on these blogs. So, you should be jubilent and dancing in the street at Microsoft's misfortunes. As you so sucscintly put it the CEO of Microsoft was dumber than a potted plant. Sir, you need another ruse; your hate of Microsoft is showing through, no matter who's at the helm. Just saying!
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Couldn't be more wrong.
HollywoodDog 30th Jun
@windozefreak I like technologies that are new and innovative and that work. I was a big Microsoft enthusiast circia 1995.

Nothing would please me more than if that company became a force for good and for change and advanced the world somehow.

But it's not, and it won't. And it certainly won't with that ranting idiot at the helm.

If he weren't supported by earnings coming in from products developed decades ago, he'd have been long since canned.

Out here in the real world, there are consequences for screwing things up. He just gets to keep failing over and over. I don't like that on general principle.

I'd like it even less if I were still a shareholder. They could have gotten a lot more value for owning the shares if a potted plant had sat in the CEO's chair for the past decade. The plant wouldn't have blown billions on failed and useless also-ran garbage.

PhailsForSure.
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Hardly
WilErz 30th Jun
@ HollywoodDog

Since Ballmer took over, Microsoft's share price has more or less tracked the Nasdaq composite index. Perhaps you think the IT sector as a whole is run by potted plants?
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the end is near
Linux Geek 30th Jun
Ballmer missed the FOSS boom and now M$ is crushing!
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
bmonsterman 30th Jun
@Linux Geek,

Oh yea...giving away their software should help their bottom line.
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Excellent!
dfolk2 30th Jun
As a long time Microsoft detractor due to their anti competitive and anti innovative behavior, I am delighted that Balmer plans to stay on. I hope they make him CEO for life.
He has shown little vision in technology and has stubbornly stuck with the predatory monopoly business model instead of moving the company into the future by working to change the company into one focused on innovation.
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RE: Microsoft's Ballmer: And I'm telling you, I'm not going
makrekdw73-24353635615163652143356448933213 10th Nov
gyuomo,good post!

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