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The End of Ballmer?

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Re: The End of Ballmer?

#21

Post by dreish »

wanorris wrote: post #16

Microsoft has made some missteps, but in the end, they really just have two problems they need to address now, and two they need to address over the next couple of years. Ballmer has the potential to handle them, but if he doesn't get them sorted out, they'll need someone else who can. The current problems are that they have a failed product cycle with Windows Vista, and they refuse to admit it, and they've set a goa…

From the article, it sounds to me like Microsoft's biggest problem is that Ballmer's direct reports are tired of dealing with him, and want him to fail.

Gates got away with the temper tantrums because everyone at Microsoft had a deep and abiding respect for him and his accomplishments, but Ballmer doesn't have that. If they can't have a living legend, they need a CEO with a little more charisma.

Re: The End of Ballmer?

#22

Post by trevelyan »

edw519 wrote: post #18
nkohari wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll agree that Microsoft hasn't had a stellar record for the past 10 years or so, but this is just ridiculous. + I'll give you MSN search vs. Google, which is of course what the whole Yahoo bid was about. - Hotmail was the first widely-used web mail client, and still has a very significant market share vs. Gmail and Yahoo Mail. - The xbox has a very good market share of consoles, particularly considering the history…

I didn't intend to "bash" them. (Well, maybe a little.) I'm just playing stockholder's advocate, questioning the people who are supposed to represent my best long term interests. $40B on the left side of the balance sheet covers for a lot of missteps, but sooner or later, someone's gotta start asking the hard questions like, "What is our focus?", "How do we position ourselves for the massive tech shifts about to happ…

- xbox vs. wii?

Microsoft is doing extremely well with the XBox. It has produced a leading product across multiple generations of the console market and ensured that commercial game development uses DirectX instead of migrating to OpenGL.

Re: The End of Ballmer?

#23

Post by melvinram »

melvinram wrote: post #2

Doubt it!

Regardless of how this has gone thus far, Yahoo will sell to MS at a lower price than $33/share. And even if it doesn't, Steve will order some restructuring to advanced their search ambitions. Steve is safe. And worst come worst, he'll be left with his hundreds of millions. So sad!? Right!

Re: The End of Ballmer?

#24

Post by mattmaroon »

edw519 wrote: post #17
mattmaroon wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right on number 4. You really can't compare things to the Wii. The Wii is a black swan of sorts. Nintendo is really firing on all cylinders right now. You can't expect MSFT to be able to beat a company entirely focused on gaming, with over 100 years of experience in the industry, in their own arena in that short of a time. In fact, given the number of large companies that have tried and failed to make a dent i…

"You can't expect MSFT to be able to beat a company entirely focused on gaming" Then why do they continue to insist on doing it? They have "focused" competitors in every market. They compete with google in search. They compete with Oracle in data bases. They compete with SAP in enterprise apps. Except for GE, who has an unfair advantage thanks to your tax dollars, the conglomerate has been dead for 20 years. Is Micro…

Ha, the old chop the relevant half of the sentence out and argue against the remainder technique. Always a classic in internet debate. How many votes that comment has shows the bias here.

The "in that short of a time" part was the qualifier. Microsoft knew going in that they weren't going to take the lead. It's called an investment, and it's the same thing they did with the Zune. Unlike the Zune though, they've captured an impressive amount of market share quickly with the Xbox 360. Even the original console fared well.

Re: The End of Ballmer?

#25

Post by aston »

mattmaroon wrote: post #24
edw519 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"You can't expect MSFT to be able to beat a company entirely focused on gaming" Then why do they continue to insist on doing it? They have "focused" competitors in every market. They compete with google in search. They compete with Oracle in data bases. They compete with SAP in enterprise apps. Except for GE, who has an unfair advantage thanks to your tax dollars, the conglomerate has been dead for 20 years. Is Micro…

Ha, the old chop the relevant half of the sentence out and argue against the remainder technique. Always a classic in internet debate. How many votes that comment has shows the bias here. The "in that short of a time" part was the qualifier. Microsoft knew going in that they weren't going to take the lead. It's called an investment, and it's the same thing they did with the Zune. Unlike the Zune though, they've captu…

The analogy you note between the Zune and the Xbox is maybe more similar than you think. People forget the Xbox first came out 2001. It takes years for an investment in a new market like that to get big, even if executed perfectly. I'm interested in seeing how the Zune looks 3-5 years from now. Mostly because I think J. Allard's a genius.

Re: The End of Ballmer?

#26

Post by ArcticCelt »

I am surprise that people speculate about the end of Ballmer when in fact it's the end of Jerry Yang that we will see very soon. I can't wait for the stock market to open in a couple of hours, my popcorn is ready. (It's not so much that I wish Yahoo to go down but more that I am exited to see what will really happen).

Re: The End of Ballmer?

#27

Post by wumi »

edw519 wrote: post #17
mattmaroon wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right on number 4. You really can't compare things to the Wii. The Wii is a black swan of sorts. Nintendo is really firing on all cylinders right now. You can't expect MSFT to be able to beat a company entirely focused on gaming, with over 100 years of experience in the industry, in their own arena in that short of a time. In fact, given the number of large companies that have tried and failed to make a dent i…

"You can't expect MSFT to be able to beat a company entirely focused on gaming" Then why do they continue to insist on doing it? They have "focused" competitors in every market. They compete with google in search. They compete with Oracle in data bases. They compete with SAP in enterprise apps. Except for GE, who has an unfair advantage thanks to your tax dollars, the conglomerate has been dead for 20 years. Is Micro…

expecting MSFT to beat a company and expecting them to be competitive are two different issues. as you've said in another post about all that $$ their sitting on -- they should be competing in several different markets, but showing up with a bunch of cash is simply not good enough to beat a well-worn competitor like Nintendo.

Game consoles are as much about the franchises as they are about the consoles themselves (Marios, Zelda, Mario Kart, Metroid, Smash Brothers, etc. for Nintendo ). That being said, it's nearly impossible to build a game franchise from nothing. Most best selling games are multiple-edition franchises (see: GTA IV, Halo, Mario, Smash Brothers, Call of Duty, All Tom Clancy games, Final Fantasy,etc.) MSFT hit the jackpot with HALO, and has a couple other interesting original titles such as Gears of War, Mass Effect and others.

Re: The End of Ballmer?

#28

Post by njetx »

Walking away from over-paying for Yahoo is probably the smartest thing Ballmer has done since becoming CEO. Did Yahoo manage to convince anyone that they really have a strong go-it-alone strategy? Why pay now when you can pay half in 12 months time.

My prediction is Ballmer will still be comfortable in the CEO suite by the end of the year.

Re: The End of Ballmer?

#29

Post by edw519 »

mattmaroon wrote: post #24
edw519 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"You can't expect MSFT to be able to beat a company entirely focused on gaming" Then why do they continue to insist on doing it? They have "focused" competitors in every market. They compete with google in search. They compete with Oracle in data bases. They compete with SAP in enterprise apps. Except for GE, who has an unfair advantage thanks to your tax dollars, the conglomerate has been dead for 20 years. Is Micro…

Ha, the old chop the relevant half of the sentence out and argue against the remainder technique. Always a classic in internet debate. How many votes that comment has shows the bias here. The "in that short of a time" part was the qualifier. Microsoft knew going in that they weren't going to take the lead. It's called an investment, and it's the same thing they did with the Zune. Unlike the Zune though, they've captu…

"Ha, the old chop the relevant half of the sentence out and argue against the remainder technique."

Isn't that exactly what you did to me, Matt?

I started this thread questioning Microsoft's leadership trying to be all things to all people instead of focusing of their core strength. As any shareholder should. I cited a half dozen examples. You and others chose your favorite example and drilled into it. How is that different?

What has made this thread so interesting is how many downvotes AND upvotes I keep getting. Microsoft's pretty polarizing, huh? I wonder how many of their employees visit this board.

"Always a classic in internet debate."

Second only to "That's not fair." Welcome to the world of Microsoft.

Re: The End of Ballmer?

#30

Post by mattmaroon »

edw519 wrote: post #29
mattmaroon wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha, the old chop the relevant half of the sentence out and argue against the remainder technique. Always a classic in internet debate. How many votes that comment has shows the bias here. The "in that short of a time" part was the qualifier. Microsoft knew going in that they weren't going to take the lead. It's called an investment, and it's the same thing they did with the Zune. Unlike the Zune though, they've captu…

"Ha, the old chop the relevant half of the sentence out and argue against the remainder technique." Isn't that exactly what you did to me, Matt? I started this thread questioning Microsoft's leadership trying to be all things to all people instead of focusing of their core strength. As any shareholder should. I cited a half dozen examples. You and others chose your favorite example and drilled into it. How is that di…

That's not what I did to you at all. You made a list of Microsoft's failures, someone else simply pointed out that one of them was in fact a success. (In fact, a few probably are by any non-hacker's definition, including Windows vs. Linux.) I didn't take it out of context, I simply seconded someone who pointed out that you were contradicting yourself.
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