Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s retirement date: Never

“Last time CEO Steve Ballmer offered a tentative timeframe as to when he might retire from Microsoft, he put the date at ten years or so from now (around the time his youngest goes to college),” Mary-Jo Foley reports for ZDNet.

MacDailyNews Note: Related article: Microsoft CEO Ballmer: I’m outta here in 9 or 10 years; as soon as my last kid goes away to college – June 05, 2008

Foley continues, “But now there’s a new date. And Ballmer may be sticking around a lot longer than many are thinking, or, in some cases, hoping.”

Foley reports, “According to scuttlebutt from Microsoft’s annual employee meeting, which was held in Seattle on September 18, Ballmer told attendees that he is going to stay on at Microsoft until Microsoft’s search share exceeds Google’s.”

“In August, Google’s U.S. search share rose 1.1 percent over the previous month’s. Yahoo’s dropped .9 percent to 20.5 percent and Microsoft’s dropped .6 percent, to 8.9 percent,” Foley reports.

MacDailyNews Note: FYI: Google’s share rose 1.1% from 61.9% to 63%. We’re sure that Microsoft sycophant Foley just made an honest mistake, but using the link Foley herself provided, Microsoft dropped 0.6% from 8.9% to 8.3%. Likewise, Yahoo dropped 0.9% from 20.5% to 19.6%. So, for Microsoft and Yahoo, it’s even worse than Foley describes.

Foley continues, “Unless Microsoft can somehow reverse this trend, Ballmer may be around a long, long time…”

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Sketchtrain” for the heads up.]

Ballmer’s going to need an embalmer long before Microsoft’s search share exceeds Google’s (ie. never).