“An ugly first week for Microsoft Corp’s new financial year, probably its most important to date, has done little to inspire confidence that the software giant can jumpstart a stubbornly stagnant share price,” Bill Rigby reports for Reuters.
“The world’s largest software company, whose stock remains mired around $30, had prepared a multi-pronged assault to try and break into the crucial mobile computing space this year and take Apple Inc and Google Inc down a peg,” Rigby reports. “But on Monday, it announced a $6.2 billion writedown of a 2007 Internet-advertising acquisition – a reminder that Microsoft has a patchy track record when it ventures outside of its Windows and Office comfort zone.”
Rigby reports, “Days later, Vanity Fair blamed Steve Ballmer’s ‘astonishingly foolish’ leadership for a ‘lost decade,’ in one of the most scathing articles ever written about the CEO. It was not the news agenda Microsoft had in mind as it prepared to unveil fourth-quarter results on July 19. The writeoff is expected to hand the company its first quarterly loss – on paper – since going public in 1986.”
“Ballmer has become a lightning rod for this failure of innovation. Vanity Fair quotes one former manager saying Microsoft had turned itself into ‘technology’s answer to Sears,'” Rigby reports. “Some point out that Microsoft’s $6.2 billion charge for an ill-conceived Internet-centric acquisition is actually better than they deserve. Ballmer offered to pay $47.5 billion for fading Internet giant Yahoo Inc in 2008. That company’s market value is now less than half that.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: These people simply fail to recognize the brilliant genius of Steve Ballmer. We like his strategy. We like it a lot. May he remain Microsoft CEO for as long as it takes!
Go Steve Ballmer! Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t be a success! Having no qualifications or ability should be no reason not to be the CEO.
Maybe Ballmer remain CEO for as long as it takes!
Go you crazy gaseous, chair throwing, developer jumping, used car salesman primate, GO!
You forgot “monkey dancing.”
That’s a little harsh…
What did car salesmen ever do to you?
Steve Bomber. Carpet bombing the corporation.
For as long as it takes…
SAY SO WE ALL!
(Oh for Pete’s sake…)
SO SAY WE ALL!
May he Reign! Don’t listen to the critics Ballmer!
R’amen.
“Ballmer has become a lightning rod for this failure of innovation” — truer words have never been spoken. But let’s hope that everyone remains blissfully oblivious for as long as it takes.
Microdog just scratching the Surface.
The wow starts when?..
Microsoft: descendant tech
Apple: ascendant tech
Any other questions?
This Ballmer bashing is a bad strategy. Next thing you know Microsoft’s Board will get wind of it and fire the guy due to bad publicity. Sheesh.
No one here is bashing Steve Ballmer. He’s the best there is. May he remain MS CEO for as long as it takes!
We could threaten MS with “If you fire Ballmer, we’ll stop buying Microsoft products.”
On second thought…that would just be business as usual and would go unnoticed.
wish that other internet advertising firms would go belly-up as well!
Are we all in some alternate universe, is this really happening, did Steve Jobs actually do it on his terms…? YES!! The WOW has NOW officially started, even if the WOW is a big bad HOLY COW! for Microsoft. Just as the coffin lid is about to snap shut.
Just wish Steve was here to enjoy the fruits of his labor.
Steve Ballmer is the best CEO ever!! Both MSFT and AAPL supporters love Steve Ballmer. I truly wish Steve Ballmer will be MSFT CEO forever!!
I like his strategy, I like it a lot. 🙂
Wow! That insult is an un-called-for!
Why does the former Microsoft manager dislike Sears enough to mention ‘Microsoft’ and ‘Sears’ in the same sentence?!
Let’s not forget the real enemies- Samsung and Google.
Not to worry, Google has exactly the DNA of Microsoft. Its time of reckoning is not far off.
Ballmer has held on so long his only exit option is hari kari.
It’s Hara Kiri, but the correct term is Seppuku, which means ‘cutting the belly’ the ritual suicide of a Samurai warrior to avoid disgrace.
Not something that applies to Balmer, he’s certainly no warrior, no matter what he may think…
Harakiri, 腹切り, is not incorrect, it is just a spoken (maybe less formal) form of the same concept. But isn’t this getting pretty far from Apple-related topics?
I don’t know…that’s a LOT of belly to be cutting. You’d have to clear 2 city blocks when that blows.
What about the 8 BILLION they paid for Skype? Have they made that back yet?
Steve Ballmer. The best thing that ever happened to Apple.
The NEXT best thing to happen to Apple. Apple would have eventually beaten Microsoft. Balmer has just expedited the process.
SEND IN THE CLOWN
(apologies to Stephen Sondheim)
Isn’t it a bitch?
It seems so unfair.
here on the the ground,
The Clown in midair.
Send in the clown,
there’s got to be clowns
Ballmer T. Clown.
Don’t bother, he’s here.
Yes, it’s a bitch.
Don’t you approve?
keeps kickin’ your ass,
Monkeyboy can’t move.
Making his entrance again,
With his simian flair.
Sure of waiting lines,
…No one is there.
Don’t you hate old farts?
Ballmer’s fault, I fear.
“I thought you’d want what I want!”
Sorry, my dear.
But where is the clown?
Ballmer T. Clown…
The stupid son-of-a-bitch is still there.
Isn’t it kitsch?
Do you feel fear?
Losing your market this late,
In your career.
And where is the Zune?
And the Sewerface®? …
in the vaporware stratosphere!
Send in the clown,
Ballmer T Clown.
Don’t bother,
I’mgonnagolistentoSondheimonmyiPad,
AND DRINK ME
… A BEER!
*snort*
“Days later, Vanity Fair blamed Steve Ballmer’s ‘astonishingly foolish’ leadership for a ‘lost decade,’ in one of the most scathing articles ever written about the CEO.”
Nooooooooooooooooo. Don’t TELL anyone!
So say we all!
Please write more checks Mr. Ballmer!!!
I know many people who hate stacked ranking and the article is right, it makes people compete against each other instead of focusing as a team.
Same thing with “purchased services” and general outsourcing. It becomes about the contract instead of the customer.
MS deserves everything they have coming.
Steve Ballmer! WTF is wrong with you? You’re making computer, phone and tablet OSes that look different. WTF is that?
Look, get back in the game. Start doing what you’re good at.
Start copying Mac OS and iOS. Look at what copying has done for Google, Samsung, Motorola and the like.
Think of what it can do for Microsoft, Dell, HP, Sony, Nokia and the like.
Get back on the horse, buddy.
monkeys don’t ride horses.
Not willingly anyways.
As a retired businessman myself, I hate to see any firm fail. The firm is a golden goose that lays golden eggs for the benefit of its customers, employees,vendors and shareholders. The primary job of every employee (top to bottom) is the care and feeding of that goose.
It’s always the leadership that causes corporate failures. Apple (Scully et al) Nokia, RIMM, MSFT, Palm, Worldcomm, Enron demonstrate that perfectly.
>It’s always the leadership that causes corporate failures. Apple (Scully et al) Nokia, RIMM, MSFT, Palm, Worldcomm, Enron demonstrate that perfectly.
Yeah, that’s true, but they’re the ones with the golden parachutes… the minions head for the unemployment lines, only to be looked upon like loafers.
Looks like Ballmer is going to need to take out another loan in order to meet payroll.
Apple is on top of the mountain because Jobs was able to let himself say “NO” to many potentially great ideas that did’nt quite fit Apple’s model.
Ellison had a great idea for net books running app components off a cloud way back, but was smart enough to keep Oracle in the high end business market and not dabble with consumers and they are huge in their pie. If Ballmer just had concentrated on a better Office/Access/Excel, etc…and stayed in their pie plate where they did manage to innovate something, they would be untouchable.
Me/Vista/Zune were bombs. M$ is a French horn player trying to play the violin. Know your strengths and stick to them.
“STEVE BALLMER: 500 dollars? Fully subsidized? With a plan? I said that is the most expensive phone in the world. And it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard. Which makes it not a very good email machine”
STEVE BALLMER: 500 dollars? Fully subsidized? With a plan? I said that is the most expensive phone in the world. And it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard. Which makes it not a very good email machine.
The only reason they blast Steve Ballmer is because they are comparing him with Steve Jobs. Otherwise this CEO would go and life would be normal.
One thing I did notice and maybe I am thinking to much in to it, but Office for Mac 2011 dose not suck like all other Office versions. What does this tell me. Microsoft is seeing the writing on the wall. They are finally producing decent software for the Mac, because the Mac is back and it’s becoming ever more relevant. So finally Microsoft decided to code a solid version of Office for the Mac. It is very well written compared to all the other crap that preceded it.
I saw Carl Schmucker, head of MS’s Mac Office division, give a talk to a Seattle Mac user group a few years ago. He impressed me greatly as mature, quietly competent, in command of his topic, etc.