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Former Microsoft executive says Ballmer culls internal rivals to retain power

uk.reuters.com

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Re: Former Microsoft executive says Ballmer culls internal rivals to retain power

#61

Post by rbanffy »

brudgers wrote: post #57

Every call for Ballmer's ouster ignores two important points. He is the second largest shareholder. His college buddy is the largest. No analyst has clout with the shareholders. Nobody inside does either. What I see in Sinofsky's departure is a clear signal that the type of politics which this article assumes to be the proper way of creating succession is being deprecated within Microsoft. What I mean is that the arg…

> He is the second largest shareholder. His college buddy is the largest.

Being a college buddy of one of the founders hardly qualifies someone to run a multibillion dollar company.

Re: Former Microsoft executive says Ballmer culls internal rivals to retain power

#62

Post by mseebach »

rbanffy wrote: post #61
brudgers wrote: post #57

Every call for Ballmer's ouster ignores two important points. He is the second largest shareholder. His college buddy is the largest. No analyst has clout with the shareholders. Nobody inside does either. What I see in Sinofsky's departure is a clear signal that the type of politics which this article assumes to be the proper way of creating succession is being deprecated within Microsoft. What I mean is that the arg…

> He is the second largest shareholder. His college buddy is the largest. Being a college buddy of one of the founders hardly qualifies someone to run a multibillion dollar company.

It also doesn't disqualify someone. At the end of the day, it's the shareholders decision.

Re: Former Microsoft executive says Ballmer culls internal rivals to retain power

#63

Post by rbanffy »

bhousel wrote: post #28
meaty wrote: post #8

Probably throws chairs at them... To be serious, this is normal in most corporates. It starts when you let the MBA* with the personality disorder in, you're fucked. I've watched three companies fall at the hands of such people. * This is not true of all MBAs, but I seem to see a trend where there are more borderline psychopaths.

Steve Ballmer does not have an MBA.

But I wouldn't rule the personality disorder out. Neither for him, nor his predecessor.

Re: Former Microsoft executive says Ballmer culls internal rivals to retain power

#64

Post by rbanffy »

mseebach wrote: post #62
rbanffy wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He is the second largest shareholder. His college buddy is the largest. Being a college buddy of one of the founders hardly qualifies someone to run a multibillion dollar company.

It also doesn't disqualify someone. At the end of the day, it's the shareholders decision.

No, but it's Ballmer's job to prove himself competent for the job he occupies. I'd be disappointed if he did that by voting for himself.

Re: Former Microsoft executive says Ballmer culls internal rivals to retain power

#65

Post by gawker »

rbanffy wrote: post #64
mseebach wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also doesn't disqualify someone. At the end of the day, it's the shareholders decision.

No, but it's Ballmer's job to prove himself competent for the job he occupies. I'd be disappointed if he did that by voting for himself.

The company is still afloat and still profitable - he's doing a much better job than quite a few CEOs out there.

Re: Former Microsoft executive says Ballmer culls internal rivals to retain power

#66

Post by chollida1 »

chris_wot wrote: post #2

There does seem to be a lot of own goals going on at Microsoft at the moment. But then again, some of the "talent" that has left is still making those own-goals. Stephen Elop went to Nokia, and instead of using the one thing that I believe could have competed in the market - Maemo and then Meego - was dropped in favour of Microsoft's operating system. That's an own goal, if ever I've seen one. So IMO, it's not really…

> Stephen Elop went to Nokia, and instead of using the one thing that I believe could have competed in the market - Maemo and then Meego - was dropped in favour of Microsoft's operating system. That's an own goal, if ever I've seen one.

SO because the new CEO adopts an OS that you don't agree with, that's automatically an "own goal"?

Remember the board and top execs at Nokia all were 100% behind the Windows phone switch, otherwise they would have brought in an exec who had a different strategy.

Re: Former Microsoft executive says Ballmer culls internal rivals to retain power

#67

Post by nanook »

In a parallel universe: Gates returns, fires Ballmer and turns MS around. Reality: He's probably happier solving much bigger problems in the world.

But still, it sucks to see someone drive his company to the ground. Has Ballmer ever done anything right for Microsoft? I can't think of anything.

Re: Former Microsoft executive says Ballmer culls internal rivals to retain power

#68

Post by ludston »

rbanffy wrote: post #64
mseebach wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also doesn't disqualify someone. At the end of the day, it's the shareholders decision.

No, but it's Ballmer's job to prove himself competent for the job he occupies. I'd be disappointed if he did that by voting for himself.

No it isn't, even if you feel like he doesn't deserve the position.

It would be nice for us if he were replaced by someone more competent, but unfortunately the world doesn't believe in fairness...

Re: Former Microsoft executive says Ballmer culls internal rivals to retain power

#69

Post by gawker »

WhaleBiologist wrote: post #40
chris_wot wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... and thus causing massive destabilization in whole economies. No thanks! Think about it. If a corporation employs 1 million employees, and that company fails, then the economy will most definitely take a hit. On top of this, that company would hold far too much power and could use the power of the number of people working for it to force governments into doing things that it wouldn't do for the greater good. It ha…

Banks got retarded amounts of taxpayer money because of "too big to fail"

You would probably lose more than just a few banks if they didn't get some sort of money. The financial markets need confidence to survive as well.

Re: Former Microsoft executive says Ballmer culls internal rivals to retain power

#70

Post by [deleted] »

dmk23 wrote: post #5

I am not sure why this is considered news. Guess just because this guy went on the record to state the obvious? Every large company develops internal politics with various degrees of harm to itself and its performance. If the business is led by a non-founder, non-technical, non-performing CEO it is a given that he will always feel like an insecure usurper/impostor more concerned about protecting their job from rivals…

[deleted]
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