Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#381

Post by mratzloff » Fri, Aug 23, 2013, 4:38 PM UTC

Pxtl wrote: post #311

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that he will probably not be remembered for having more than doubled revenue and almost tripled profits. He will not be remembered for transforming Microsoft into one of the most important enterprise software companies. Not for introducing .NET, C# or Kinect either. All of that will be forgotten. He will be remembered for missing mobile. He will also be remembered for caring a lot about developers and about d…

Yes, but with C# we got ASP.Net web-forms. Holy crap what a technological boondoggle. In general, MS seems to have serious ADD under Ballmer. They introduce massive thundering huge frameworks every other year as some spectacularly big deal, and then drop them soon after. You ever noticed how every Office and Visual Studio version has a completely new suite of program icons? Are they deliberately trying to hurt the us…

That's a result of how Microsoft evaluates employees. People are disproportionately recognized for new initiatives, not refinements.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#382

Post by milhous » Fri, Aug 23, 2013, 4:39 PM UTC

rdl wrote: post #33

Since the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has a huge percentage of its wealth still in MSFT stock, I think Bill Gates can make a case to himself that picking the best possible leader for MSFT will save hundreds of thousands of marginal children. If I were him, there would be two candidates: Qi Lu (insider, obvious choice), or, for the ultimate in turnaround ballerdom: Ben Horowitz (from a16z). Either would be a vas…

I'll throw in a wildcard and say Scott Forstall as the next CEO so he can get his revenge!

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#383

Post by jcheng » Fri, Aug 23, 2013, 4:39 PM UTC

zanny wrote: post #330

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So has Steve Jobs missed social and search as well? No. All companies need not do the exact same thing. Missing mobile is relevant because it is eating into Microsoft's PC revenues, but social and search is a whole new business that Microsoft didn't need to get involved in at all. In my view, Ballmer's mistake is to not go after Oracle and SAP much more than chasing Apple and Google.

What about Bing? Microsoft didn't get into social because that is entirely outside their market. The limit of it seemed to be something like msn messenger, which had business use cases as much as social ones. I mean, its not like MS didn't try the search thing, but search is something Google will own until they fuck it up, not from anyone entering to compete with them, because free & good enough are hard to break. Al…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Live_Spaces

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#384

Post by gibybo » Fri, Aug 23, 2013, 4:40 PM UTC

wallygold wrote: post #102

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…

They've paid dividends pretty consistently over that time so if the price is the same (or close) hasn't it effectively appreciated? This article puts the cash value of the 2004 special dividend at 32 billion. (And that's not to include the quarterly dividends that they haven't missed a beat on.) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/21/business/technology-micros...

The dollar has inflated 40% since 1999, so the value of a MSFT share has decreased quite a bit.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#385

Post by agentsaran » Fri, Aug 23, 2013, 4:44 PM UTC

Terrible CEO or not. Under his leadership Microsoft stopped becoming a software leader. They stopped leading and started following. Yes. Great products were launched. Windows Phone 8 (really cool interface), the Surface tablet, the xBox, Azure, various improvements to Bing. But they were outdone by competitors in almost all of these areas. Microsoft has to keep innovating, they have to become the disruptors. Right now, they're just busy playing catchup.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#386

Post by claudius » Fri, Aug 23, 2013, 4:45 PM UTC

CmonDev wrote: post #230

sampo wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> parent comment used to say "worst CEO of modern history" What about Stephen Elop? "As of June 2013, Nokia's [...] stock value dropped by 85% since Elop's takeover." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Elop

You can't stop a train immediately. At least Symbian/MeeGo/Android chasm has been avoided.

Apologies, but Harmattan (aka Maemo 6 aka ‘MeeGo Instance’) is still my favourite mobile OS, and even though it was released in 2010 it still easily keeps up with the standard stuff on Android, iOS and Windows Phone (no voice recognition à la Siri, though).

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#387

Post by geoka9 » Fri, Aug 23, 2013, 4:46 PM UTC

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…

Being a terrible CEO at Microsoft is being a hero in my book.

As someone noted below, "Microsoft used to control the future of computing". This was a very bad proposition, as we all know how evil they are in general, and incompetent whenever it comes to actually doing something new, as opposed to copycatting and driving out of business their competition.

I will always remember and be thankful to Ballmer for making MS a nonissue.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#388

Post by runjake » Fri, Aug 23, 2013, 4:46 PM UTC

eykanal wrote: post #145

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that he will probably not be remembered for having more than doubled revenue and almost tripled profits. He will not be remembered for transforming Microsoft into one of the most important enterprise software companies. Not for introducing .NET, C# or Kinect either. All of that will be forgotten. He will be remembered for missing mobile. He will also be remembered for caring a lot about developers and about d…

And for missing search. And for missing social. And for insulting OEMs. And for his failed Windows Vista launch, and Windows 7, and Windows 8. For one man, he sure has a lot of failures on his plate.

> For one man, he sure has a lot of failures on his plate.

As do all successful people. If success were easy, everyone would be doing it.

For all the ways I disagree with Ballmer, this seems like a poor choice to point out.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#389

Post by gruseom » Fri, Aug 23, 2013, 4:47 PM UTC

Kiro wrote: post #152

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'm pretty sure that has very little to do with Microsoft's state today.

He didn't say it did. He said it was revealing of Ballmer, who does have something to do with Microsoft's state today.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#390

Post by skue » Fri, Aug 23, 2013, 4:50 PM UTC

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #94

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…

I agree that he will probably not be remembered for having more than doubled revenue and almost tripled profits. He will not be remembered for transforming Microsoft into one of the most important enterprise software companies. Not for introducing .NET, C# or Kinect either. All of that will be forgotten. He will be remembered for missing mobile. He will also be remembered for caring a lot about developers and about d…

> He will be remembered for missing mobile.

Wait, what? That's like saying RIM missed mobile. Microsoft was doing mobile years before Apple or Google ever entered the market[1].

My guess is that Microsoft and Ballmer's real-world experience in mobile actually constrained their imaginations. Their failure to see how mobile could be reinvented was due more to hubris than naivete.

[1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Windows_...