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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

#161

Post by beagle3 »

pcunite wrote: post #131
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…

Israeli? That seems strange ... I don't want to name regions, but you've got your geography wrong if you think they're the worst.

Conduit is a billion dollar company, with a successful business pimping installers and toolbars, and is Israeli. Babylon is just a few hundred millions, doing mostly the same (they started out with a very nice dictionary system, but that doesn't make much money, especially after google translate). Cydoor, that ran the ads inside Kazaa and programs of the day, was also Israeli. iMesh, if I'm not mistaken, as also Israeli.

I'm sure there are larger malware operations, but the Israeli adware economy is probably the largest "legit" one.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#162

Post by belorn »

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.

Lets not forget secure boot, and how that alienated developers and computer enthusiast. That and the NSA agreement.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#163

Post by dmethvin »

sidcool wrote: post #119
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.

Ad popups - Separate windows with ads based on your browsing history or even whatever they find installed on your system.

Ad injection - Putting ads on web pages they didn't write, such as Google search results.

Ad substitution - Replacing ads on web sites with their own ads.

Cookie stuffing - Injecting or clobbering referral cookies for sites like Amazon so that they get an undeserved commission on things you buy.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#164

Post by sixothree »

1337biz wrote: post #138
kabdib wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank God. (Speaking as an ex-Microsoftie). Hopefully MS will lose the "we need to put Windows on everything, including embedded systems" attitude. Windows is a horrible bloated mess barely capable of successfully running on a tablet PC, much less smaller things. (And if you've ever had to /build/ Windows . . . OMG. OMFG). There are core bits of Windows that are great; the I/O system is incredibly well done. Then the…

But what could be the future of MS look like a strategic perspective? I am pondering a bit about that. They are somewhat squeezed in between closed system and open source. How can they position themselves for a solid path for the future in that middle-ground.

"... its transformation to a devices and services ..." doesn't seem to mention software.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#165

Post by gregd »

wslh wrote: post #55

Good news, bad news, who knows? I don't know if current Microsoft issues are in their DNA or not. Personally I was bullish (yes I put my money where my mouth is) of MSFT but I mainly found the following obstacles to be more optimistic: - The relationship with developers was deteriorating: I am a MSDN customer and tried to upgrade but they don't give me any discount in the first year of upgrade while keeping with my s…

Microsoft's licensing schemes are riddles, wrapped in enigma's and covered with shit. I'm actually surprised that Windows doesn't have In App Purchases. You want to search? It's only 2.99! You want the desktop? It's only .99!

I've never encountered the issues you have with MSDN. I believe you only because the team that dreams up their licensing/key schemes, should be forced to use them.

The jury is still out on Windows 8. Having left my enterprise setting prior to Windows 8 become widely available (hell I left even before we moved to Windows 7), I wonder how Win8 is to manage in an enterprise setting. Most users that I've encountered, would have had a hell of a time transitioning from the traditional Windows XP/7 desktop, to Metro. My office would have been queued with "Where is the Start menu?"

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#166

Post by mathattack »

smoorman1024 wrote: post #150
mathattack wrote: post #7

Huge news! Let's see what happens to the stock today. It edged up a little at the end of the day, suggesting that perhaps news was getting out. It's up 8% in premarket trading. [1] One interesting thing to note from that chart is their Beta (a measure of link to market volatility) is less than 1, which is very low for a high tech stock. It basically means that the market views them as less volatile to market conditio…

It's a strong assertion to say that it edged up based on news possibly getting out. After the NASDAQ halt yesterday the NASDAQ composite as a whole edged up. MSFT's movement looks correlated to this broader move. https://www.google.com/finance?q=INDEXNASDAQ%3A.IXIC&ei=mGoX...

Good point. I was thinking it was rumors getting out because of the gradual nature of the move, but I think that you're right. Traders were slow to put orders back into the market, which created a gradual drift up, rather than an instant reset in the market when it re-opened.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#167

Post by zeckalpha »

mathattack wrote: post #104
chollida1 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One interesting thing to note from that chart is their Beta (a measure of link to market volatility) is less than 1, which is very low for a high tech stock. Not really, Looking at my Bloomberg terminal shows that AAPL US Equity has a beta of .944, YHOO US Equity has a beta of .748 and GOGO US Equity has a beta of .894.

Interesting. I see IBM is less than 1 too. Facebook has a 3.29, LinkedIn is 1.81, Accenture is 1.4 and SAP is 1.5. Do you think this is based on revenue models? Size? The amount of cash on hand? Brand strength? Likelihood of needing to go to the public markets for money?

It's drawn from a normal distribution.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#168

Post by rdl »

1337biz wrote: post #138
kabdib wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank God. (Speaking as an ex-Microsoftie). Hopefully MS will lose the "we need to put Windows on everything, including embedded systems" attitude. Windows is a horrible bloated mess barely capable of successfully running on a tablet PC, much less smaller things. (And if you've ever had to /build/ Windows . . . OMG. OMFG). There are core bits of Windows that are great; the I/O system is incredibly well done. Then the…

But what could be the future of MS look like a strategic perspective? I am pondering a bit about that. They are somewhat squeezed in between closed system and open source. How can they position themselves for a solid path for the future in that middle-ground.

A non-crappy enterprise mobile option alone (basically Blackberry 2013) would be a $100b business. Neither Android nor iOS is that out of the box, and the bolt-on ecosystem of crap doesn't turn either into as good a system as RIM was in its heyday.

Look what phone DIRNSA uses today: a Blackberry.

I'd sell non-core assets (Xbox, Bing, hotmail, consumer stuff in general, etc.), and focus on the core OS/mobile/Azure/Office/MSDN systems.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#169

Post by jusben1369 »

I'm most interested with the "type" of CEO they replace him with. Broad categories:

- Within Tech: They hire an Apple type key executive whose background is all around getting hardware/software/direct sales to work together. They want to move to be a super tight, integrated brand. - Outside of Tech: They hire from a GE type of company. This acknowledges that they're a sprawling behemoth and will stay that way. They need someone who can manage a hugely disparate conglomerate. - Tech vs Sales: Broadly speaking Bill was a product guru with a huge slice of business acumen. Ballmer was all sales and number driven. How we describe the new hire will be interesting. - Mobile vs Cloud. Do we end up with someone really well known for their mobile background? Or someone who is really well thought of for understanding the cloud? For example Apple has generally nailed mobile and struggled in cloud. MSFT has actually done a little better in cloud than they're given credit for. But it will tell us what they think is more important by the hire.

Any other suggestions?

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#170

Post by derefr »

rdl wrote: post #72
kjhughes wrote: post #61

What were the key Ballmer era highlights? == Negatives == * Clashes with Gates during CEO transition of power: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121261241035146237.html * Developer relations / motivational speaking (thanks mathattack): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsboPUjrGc * Employee retention (thanks JonnieCache, Ziomislaw): http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/microsoft-ceo-im-going... * Windows Phone: http://…

Positives: Only threw away 10-20b on pointless acquisitions (aQ, etc.). Successfully avoided buying Nokia, or pulling an HP/Compaq Fiorina fiasco, and didn't buy a big dying services organization to chase IBM. Also didn't do like HP's board with the lawsuits and revolving door CEOs and such. Avoided major criminal activity.

This should sound like a ridiculous set of "positives", but it doesn't. Instead, I'm thinking--when you put it that way, Ballmer certainly wasn't the worst they could have done. Not by far.
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