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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

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Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#111

Post by rrrrtttt »

Let me tell you an anecdote why I think Ballmer was incompetent and largely responsible for the sorry state that Microsoft is in at the moment. Yesterday there was a long article in the Israeli newspaper Globes about the success of the Israeli adware companies. Israel has in recent years become a world leader in software that installs unwanted toolbars on your elderly dad and mom's PC and "monetizes" them until they get their son or daughter to come over and fix it.

The list of such companies includes some really big ones, like Babylon and Conduit. These companies are making their profits by degrading Windows users' experience. Not only didn't Ballmer do anything to fight them, Microsoft actually has affiliate agreements with these companies to take a slice of the profits. Screwing your own customers like that cannot end well for Microsoft.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#112

Post by eterm »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #47
lbarrow wrote: post #23

He'll be remembered as a terrible CEO. Ballmer took over as CEO in 2000. In the 13 years since then, Apple has experienced an unprecedented resurgence. Google and Facebook have gone from being obscure startups to giants. The tech industry went through the bubble, recovered, and today is stronger than ever. What happened to Microsoft? While the rest of the tech sector exploded and prospered, it stayed still. A MSFT sh…

Microsoft had already lost all of its momentum by 2000. The antitrust case was a major distraction and by the time it was over Microsoft had a badly damaged brand image that has never recovered. Gates overreached during his later years and made the company too insular, leading to them missing out on all of the advances to come.

Microsoft had lost all it's momentum before Windows XP was released? An OS which absolutely dominated for over a decade.

Even more importantly SQL Server really matured in SQL server 2005, as did IIS leading to a large proportion of the server share too.

.NET / C# was also post-2000, another very important strategic asset with Visual Studio.

I'm not sure that it is fair to characterise MS post 2000 as missing out completely.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#113

Post by stephencanon »

smackfu wrote: post #105
lbarrow wrote: post #23

He'll be remembered as a terrible CEO. Ballmer took over as CEO in 2000. In the 13 years since then, Apple has experienced an unprecedented resurgence. Google and Facebook have gone from being obscure startups to giants. The tech industry went through the bubble, recovered, and today is stronger than ever. What happened to Microsoft? While the rest of the tech sector exploded and prospered, it stayed still. A MSFT sh…

MSFT pays a dividend. Just looking at stock price then vs. now is ignoring that. Very common mistake.

You need to consider both the dividend and inflation; $35 in 2000 dollars is $47 today. In the intervening time, they paid a total dividend of $7.69. I haven’t done the full inflation-adjusted dividend computation, but I would guess that it works out pretty close to a wash, but slightly in the red.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#115

Post by mikeash »

gregd wrote: post #98
Delmania wrote: post #63

I think Ballmer is an interesting case study in perception versus results. He's commonly portrayed as a poor CEO that has led Microsoft in the direction of irrelevance. And yet, to quote oft critic Gruber, "he knows how to make money" ( http://daringfireball.net/linked/2013/04/19/msft-q3 ) I'd love to sit down and talk to him, and see if his vision is a bit more long range than your average industry analyst, similar…

I would argue that Gruber is wrong. Microsoft would have made money during it's Ballmer years, regardless of who was at the helm. When Gates left, MS was a Katamari ball rolling down hill, catching all the money in it's path.

People often point to MS's continued profitability in these discussions, but they're missing the point. The question isn't whether they're profitable today, but whether they're profitable and relevant in ten or twenty years.

Profits are a lagging indicator for a once-successful company. A large company with entrenched products can coast for a long time while in decline. For example, RIM basically sank in 2007-2008. They had opportunities to save themselves well after that, but that's when it started, and they passed up those opportunities. However, their decline didn't really show up in their financials until 2012.

Microsoft looks to me like they're the same way. Surface and the new Windows Phone are analogous to RIM's late, lame attempts to ship a large-touchscreen Blackberry. Microsoft is profitable for the same reason they've been profitable for the past couple of decades: Windows and Office. However, that's now a declining market. It's still huge, and they can milk it for a long time, but it's on the way out. It looks like they missed their chance to move on to something else in favor of hanging on to their cash cows as they sink.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#117

Post by larrydavid »

the_bear wrote: post #54
anuragramdasan wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ballmer has always lacked the ability to see the future. Be it about him calling Zune the iPhone killer, or much prior to that claiming it in the media that no one would ever wan tto buy an iPhone. Also, really below par products.

To be fair, one of the greatest "see the future" CEOs has said similar things. Just off the top of my head, I know that Steve Jobs said that no one would want a larger screen than the original iPhone had, and he said that 7" tablets didn't make any sense. Now Apple has a larger iPhone screen and 7" tablet. That's not to say that Steve Jobs was wrong about the future, but he had to sell devices in the present which me…

Apple doesn't have a 7" tablet...the iPad Mini is a 7.9" tablet. Quite a difference screen area-wise.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#118

Post by tuananh »

rrrrtttt wrote: post #111

Let me tell you an anecdote why I think Ballmer was incompetent and largely responsible for the sorry state that Microsoft is in at the moment. Yesterday there was a long article in the Israeli newspaper Globes about the success of the Israeli adware companies. Israel has in recent years become a world leader in software that installs unwanted toolbars on your elderly dad and mom's PC and "monetizes" them until they…

Can you provide the source about the part " Microsoft actually has affiliate agreements with these companies to take a slice of the profits"?

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#119

Post by sidcool »

rrrrtttt wrote: post #111

Let me tell you an anecdote why I think Ballmer was incompetent and largely responsible for the sorry state that Microsoft is in at the moment. Yesterday there was a long article in the Israeli newspaper Globes about the success of the Israeli adware companies. Israel has in recent years become a world leader in software that installs unwanted toolbars on your elderly dad and mom's PC and "monetizes" them until they…

I didn't know this. Can you tell me how the adware firms earn money? I am asking out of sincere curiosity.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#120

Post by RougeFemme »

mathattack wrote: post #92
sz4kerto wrote: post #80

Paul Thurrot's comment: "On a personal note, I'll just add that Ballmer was one of the good guys. Though he was relentlessly mocked for his over-the-top public appearances in years past, Ballmer was also relentlessly pro-Microsoft and it's very clear that the troubles of the past decade were at least in part not of his making: Ballmer inherited a Microsoft that had been driven into an antitrust quagmire by Mr. Gates,…

"While many called for his ouster for many years, I never saw a single leader emerge at Microsoft who could fill his shoes or the needs of this lofty position. Looking at the available options today, I still don't." This in and of itself is a failure of leadership. If you can't groom a leader to replace you in 15 years, that's a problem. Some could argue it's deliberate (defending their job) others might argue that h…

Not disagreeing, just clarifying. . .do you mean that the last 2 presidents and Bloomberg should have been/should be more involved in grooming folks within their respective parties to take their places?
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