No topics on Steve Ballmer's Retirement?

[ToyotaNSaturn]

??

Thought the anti-MS crowd would be out in full force with this news.

http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-ceo-ballmer-to-retire-in-the-next-12-months-7000019793/

 

[simple_gifts]

Quote:

Steve Ballmer's Retirement?


Taking a cue from his monkey dance video

Quote:

Get on your feet
Get up and make it happen


Some analysts praise his performance in the business sector, can't really dispute that, but in the consumer market MS has moved into near irrelevance and it seems like another giant miscalculation on his part or if calculated, a strategy very poorly implemented.

 

[fdcg27]

MS has less than half the market cap today that it had when Ballmer took the reins. Over the same period, Apple has grown from a doomed nothing to a company worth roughly 150% of MS.
MS today is worth no more than Google.
Great work taking a position of complete dominance and losing it.

 

[jimbrewer]

The market cap for Microsoft went up about $15 billion the minute the news was announced.

I was thinking: I'm a pretty bad employee. I talk too much and laugh too loud. I abuse the company vehicles and take long lunch hours.

I'm not so bad though, that the value of my company would go up 5% if I quit.

 

[Mystic]

I can't exactly see Microsoft as being near irrelevance. Watch how many copies of Windows 7 are sold to businesses when businesses still using Windows XP have to upgrade. And Windows tablet computers are actually starting to sell somewhat. Microsoft still has about 90% of the desktop computer market worldwide. And Google is doing great in the stock market. Apple is not doing so great. Apple stock went from about 700 to about 380 or so and then some billionaires invested in Apple and the stock went back to about 500. Apple is selling a cheaper iPhone and the sales of iPads and iPods has declined. So has the sale of Mac Computers. From a high of 5.2 million a quarter to something like 3.8 million a quarter now. I think Apple needs a new CEO also.

As for Steve Ballmer, I am glad he is leaving. I wonder if Microsoft will be able to replace him with a better CEO. Hopefully not whoever dictated that loser UI for Windows 8. Because Windows 8 is actually a good OS without that loser UI. Put Start8 and a total of about 12 bucks worth of software on Windows 8 and you will forget Windows 7.

 

[dparm]

I think investors see it as the next evolution of Microsoft. No one denies that Ballmer revitalized the company, and now there's a chance someone can take that to the next level.

 

[sleddriver]

Interesting to have lived through the 'digital ages'. I learned a bit of cp/m. Then when the Mac was first introduced, I bought one soon after getting out of college. I used it for years, then bought a IIci and used it up until 1998, when I bought a used laptop running W98se.

Point is I (fortunately) completely missed the whole MS-DOS, 3.1, 95 debacle as I was running AOS up through 6.xx. Apple was the underdog against the mighty Gates. Lots of Apple drama. Seemed like it took forever for Apple to get their act together.

Fast forward to the future....MS very slow to respond to the internet wave, W2K was their first stable OS, even had networking! Apple being a hardware manufacturer began to innovate and produce some great products...and their stock price soared. Wish I still owned my Apple stock from decades ago. I just got tired of waiting for Apple to get its act together.

Now it seems MS has lost theirs. Vista was a bomb. Seven finally arrived to replace it as XP was very long-in-the-tooth compared to OSX. Now many are griping about W8.

Imagine the hundred's of millions of computers all (still) running WXP and MS on a long slide to oblivion and irrelevancy. Could it happen? The market obviously believes Balmer was in there WAY too long, especially given the pace of change now-a-days.

My how the once mighty fall. . .

 

[morepwr]

I read the thread title and was thinking "who?"

 

[jrustles]

Ballmer was a genuine moron. His behaviour spoke volumes to the MS management mentality. I mean, the monkey boy video as funny as it is (I lol'ed consistenly for years!), once the laughing stops is really quite frightening. To know that an already unhealthy man can be on the coke-high of his life, so extremely absorbed in profound delusions of grandeur on a stage of in front of thousands, and no one does anything. No one thinks that's abnormal. No one says anything about him being clearly DESTROYED on coke, because he's the guy in charge. Even with the dumptruck loads of blow in front of him, he was a complete failure as CEO IMO.


Bye bye Ballm'sy Boy!

 

[jaj]

It's easy to pick on Microsoft for a whole lot of "things they didn't do" but along the way, don't lose sight of the fact that Microsoft's products are as fundamental to global business as asphalt is to roads. There is literally no competition to MS when it comes to powering the modern office. Even MS's most edgy and hip competitors would be hamstrung if Office and Windows suddenly stopped working.

 

[OneEyeJack]

When Ballmer retired the stock went up and the value of his MS stock portfolio increased 800 million dollars. I just hope that the increased value does not go to his head and that he realizes that he must carefully plan a budget for his retirement. If he wants a private jet airplane he must keep the fleet down to a dozen or so. And for the rest of his life he should consider not buying more than a couple of homes every year and cap each home purchase to less than 10 to 20 million dollars. At least he's bailing out before MS has to deal with Obamacare and the exponential growth of government control and regulations. MS's future means jobs being converted to part time work or being exported offshore to fall in line with the Administration goals and Obamacare regulations. MS will be expected to follow current business trends with 7 out of every 8 jobs created since 2008 being part time jobs. Yes, Ballmer is smart enough to know when to employ that parachute and get out of Dodge.

 

[dparm]

Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
When Ballmer retired the stock went up and the value of his MS stock portfolio increased 800 million dollars. I just hope that the increased value does not go to his head and that he realizes that he must carefully plan a budget for his retirement. If he wants a private jet airplane he must keep the fleet down to a dozen or so. And for the rest of his life he should consider not buying more than a couple of homes every year and cap each home purchase to less than 10 to 20 million dollars. At least he's bailing out before MS has to deal with Obamacare and the exponential growth of government control and regulations. MS's future means jobs being converted to part time work or being exported offshore to fall in line with the Administration goals and Obamacare regulations. MS will be expected to follow current business trends with 7 out of every 8 jobs created since 2008 being part time jobs. Yes, Ballmer is smart enough to know when to employ that parachute and get out of Dodge.



Hopefully he will donate to good causes like Gates did.

 

[fdcg27]

Originally Posted By: jaj
It's easy to pick on Microsoft for a whole lot of "things they didn't do" but along the way, don't lose sight of the fact that Microsoft's products are as fundamental to global business as asphalt is to roads. There is literally no competition to MS when it comes to powering the modern office. Even MS's most edgy and hip competitors would be hamstrung if Office and Windows suddenly stopped working.


This is true, I'd say, as I type this on a PC running the very reliable XP.
I've used one version after another of MS Office for more years than I'd care to count and it really is a good and easy to use suite.
I'd be lost without Excel and Word makes memos beyond really easy, as long as you recognize that spell check doesn't understand context.
I'm also very fond of Outlook.
Since MS does provide the almost universal email and office utility software, why hasn't this translated to better market value?
How much money is MS losing to bootleg software in some Asian and Eastern European countries?

 

[Mystic]

It is silly to hear somebody say that Microsoft has become irrelevant and not important in today's world. Some people in the Linux world predicted about 15 years ago that Microsoft would be gone in a few years. Well, they are still around and will be around for at least a while.

Microsoft Office has become critical in the business world. About 90% of everybody uses it. And much of the software and hardware used in the business world depends on Windows. Soon businesses still using Windows XP will have to upgrade to either Windows 7 or Windows 8.

For desktop computers I want either Windows or Apple OS X. Apple may actually be in more trouble today than Microsoft, because demand for Apple mobile devices has declined with competition from other companies and Apple Computer sales have declined sharply.

For those who hate Microsoft and Windows they are going to have to wait quite a while longer. They might as well get comfortable because Microsoft is going to be around for at least another ten years or so. And probably longer than that.

 

[demarpaint]

Maybe the stock price will come back to pre tech wreck levels. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Word on the street is that he was forcefully being pushed out, perhaps a hush-hush firing?

http://blogs.computerworld.com/windows/22711/steve-ballmer-was-fired-so-what-now-itbwcw

 

[javacontour]

But how relevant is the desktop world?

I don't think M$ will become irrelevant due to M$. They will follow the same path as many other tech giants. There will be newer technology that replaces a large part of the installed base.

The biggest threat to M$ is the tablet and smartphone. Less need for the desktop and/or less margin there as it becomes an appliance while folks spend more getting on the upgrade wheel for their handheld devices.

How many smartphones and tablets do they go through during the same period between desktop/laptop updates?

 

[itguy08]

He needs to stick around - doing a great job running Microsoft into the ground. He needs to do the world a favor and finish the job.

It's time for a changing of the guard in technology and we will all be better off in a post-Microsoft world.

 

[itguy08]

Originally Posted By: jaj
It's easy to pick on Microsoft for a whole lot of "things they didn't do" but along the way, don't lose sight of the fact that Microsoft's products are as fundamental to global business as asphalt is to roads. There is literally no competition to MS when it comes to powering the modern office. Even MS's most edgy and hip competitors would be hamstrung if Office and Windows suddenly stopped working.


Really?
Most real number crunching gets done on some sort of Unix.
Most Web sites are run on some flavor of Linux and Apache.
Most e-mail (think ISP's) is hosted on some version of Linux
Stock Exchanges (NYSE, Nasdaq, London) run on Linux
The most valuable company in the world does not run Windows except in limited circumstances (I'm looking at you Apple).
There is a shift from Office to online apps being led by Google Apps.

Microsoft is not as integral as asphalt - we would get along fine without them. However lots of narrow minded IT folks would be out of a job.

Microsoft is not the juggernaut they used to be. And that's a good thing. The less of their junk out there the better off the world will be! I've been around before MS and we got along just as well (and in many cases better than) with NetWare, WordPerfect, 1-2-3, Harvard Graphics, etc.

 

[rjundi]

MS is declining in market share. Windows 8 is simply folks upgrading to new hardware while the old licenses are junked typically. There is not net gain in the Windows desktop just normal migration.

MS is not going anywhere and can remain as a legacy OS with massive base to support. Their tablets and phones are never going to overtake Android or iOs. Just another blip of folks who bought the oddball product.