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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

#171

Post by UnoriginalGuy »

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…

Except, you know, Windows Defender in Windows Vista, 7, and 8 (now includes AV too).

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#172

Post by woodchuck64 »

shrikant wrote: post #142
tuananh wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I remember the Microsoft deal with Conduit [1], but can't dig up anything that links Microsoft with Babylon. Interestingly, that link implies that Conduit had a deal with Google before they got a better deal for switching to Bing. [1] http://allthingsd.com/20101201/conduit-dumps-google-search-f...

I think that's the point: when Google has refused to continue to profit off browser-hijacking companies, Microsoft is only too eager to step up to offer Bing.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#174

Post by teamonkey »

mikeash wrote: post #139
sidcool wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though I agree with you mostly, I argue that Xbox and Kinect have greatly contributed to their profits.

Doesn't look like it: http://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Fina... The "Entertainment and Devices Division" is profitable, but contributes a negligible quantity to the overall profits. And either way, the home game console is also a declining market.

> the home game console is also a declining market.

Source?

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#175

Post by fauigerzigerk »

mikeash wrote: post #115
gregd wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

That's only if you ignore the enterprise. SharePoint, Exchange, SQL Server and Active Directory are dominant forces there and that wasn't the case in 2000. Microsoft's enterprise activities are very profitable and they are growing fast.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#176

Post by zeckalpha »

gregd wrote: post #135
prawks wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also don't forget Apple has had it's share of failures under Jobs (MobileMe, arguably AppleTV, their desktop peripherals always sucked, plenty of failed products, etc.).

I'm still pissed off about my Newton...

That wasn't under Jobs. He put it out of its misery.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#178

Post by rrrrtttt »

mathattack wrote: post #81
twoodfin wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like a complex enough beast that finding an appropriate outsider would be difficult too. I think they said the same thing right before Lou Gerstner went to IBM, and that turned out very well, at least from an investor's point of view. Obviously IBM was in a lot more trouble business-wise then than Microsoft is today, but I expect a similar degree of transformation out of a successful new CEO.

Yes - Lou Gerstner was a very rare bird as a CEO. He was a consultant who became a great executive, then a CEO, then led a transformation the likes of which he'd advised on as a consultant. What's needed is of that order of magnitude. How do you find folks like that?

As a side note, I really have a hard time figuring out what was it that Gerstner did at IBM. When he started, IBM was the mainframe company. What is it doing today? They say it's services, but what are services? When I did an internship there, everyone I asked just shrugged their shoulders.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#179

Post by mikeash »

sz4kerto wrote: post #45
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…

If an MSFT share was worth 35 when he took over (at the top of the bubble) and it's the same now then it does not mean (at all) that he was a crap CEO. MSFT still remains one of the most important tech companies ever, that's not a small feat. I don't think that he's an extremely brilliant CEO, but tech companies come and go, and MSFT is still close to the top. Even if everyone in the media is 100% focused on mobile n…

I think it depends on what you mean by "important". If you mean big in the industry and making products on which a lot of people depend, yes. If you mean influential in the future, then I think not.

Microsoft is a railroad company in the early days of the automobile. They're a typewriter company in the early days of the microcomputer. They're a sailing-ship builder in the early days of steam. They're important currently, but they're being left behind, and they have not positioned themselves to get in on the new stuff.

It takes a long time for changes to happen. Microsoft can live fat off the PC for a long time to come. But they will slowly slide into irrelevancy if they stick with that.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#180

Post by sker »

eykanal wrote: post #151
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…

The man missed mobile. He screwed up search. And social. And Windows Vista, and Windows 7, and Windows 8. He insulted the OEMs with the Windows Tablet, which was also a failure. He created the Zune. He even managed to screw up with Mac Office, by removing and then putting back in VBA. For one man, he sure has a lot of failures on his plate.

You've mentioned Windows 7 twice in this thread. By what measure do you consider it a failure? If anything, Windows 7 is the best thing released under Ballmer.
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