Microsoft has posted the following press release. Here it is, verbatim:
Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer confirmed Friday that he is selling some of his holdings of Microsoft stock to gain financial diversification and to assist in tax planning before the end of the calendar year. He plans to sell up to 75 million shares by year-end. Before taking into account recent sales, according to the latest Microsoft proxy report, Ballmer held approximately 408 million shares.
“Even though this is a personal financial matter, I want to be clear about this to avoid any confusion,” Ballmer said. “I am excited about our new products and the potential for our technology to change people’s lives, and I remain fully committed to Microsoft and its success.”
Source: Microsoft
MacDailyNews Take: Blah, blah, blah. 
As we wrote last Saturday: “Sadly, over what will certainly be a major hit to the humor quotient, we don’t believe that even Microsoft’s investors are in deep enough comas to allow this buffoon to survive as CEO after Windows Phone ’07 fails to set the world on fire in 2011. To have a realistic shot at catching a whiff of Apple’s fumes, Microsoft needed Windows Phone ’15 in 2011, not Windows Phone ’07. They’re already eight years behind. Ballmer chances of remaining CEO after this plays out are not good.”
He had better sell while they are worth something. AAPL up 4500% since 2003. MSFT up .75% in the last 5 years. That’s 3/4 of one percent! I hope Ballmer never leaves. If he does my AAPL may take a hit.
Please don’t go. Stay forever because your such an awesome CEO!!!
That’s a lot of antiperspirant.
MDN “man” as in “That’s a lot of antiperspirant.”
So the monkey boy is bailing off his flagship the SS Redmond.
You would think he would keep the stock as he knows it would go up after the holidays.
So he knows it’s going to go down….
Another shocker!
Olbermann is FIRED!!! HAHAHAHA!!!
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_16535752?nclick_check=1
Chief rat fleeing a sinking ship!!
He sold stock now to take advantage of the lower tax rate this year. If he waited, the tax rates might be higher for future share sales. A smart business decision.
The ole Friday night news dump. Monday the Microsoftie Massacree in 5 part harmony.
Talk about instilling confidence in your shareholders…correction: I should say even less shareholder confidence than normal. It is truly an amazing world that somebody like Ballmer could be a multi-billionaire. He’s the poster child for dumb luck, being in the right place at the right time.
@ Richie: Yes, the tax rates on income in excess of $250,000 will go up next year. Meaning that by selling now Ballmer will be saving 8½% of his potential tax burden. Meaning that if all $2 billion (MDN the stock price is $27, not $17, bad math), assuming he could get that much after the stock price tanks when this news reaches the market Monday, were treated as income he would save $61 million in federal tax burden (and $61 million is an outside worst case).
However, let’s look at the deeper message, by selling ⅙ of his shares what Ballmer is saying to world is: “I know Windows Phone 7 is going to be a epic failure and that the stock price is going fall off a cliff after I lay this big goose egg.”
Think about it, if Windows Phone 7 were actually a success (okay y’all can stop laughing now) and thus Microsoft’s stock price rose even a dollar per share in the next year (close to what Apple’s stock appreciates each week) then Ballmer’s holdings would be worth an additional $400 million, an amount that dwarfs his potential tax liability increase from 2009 to 2010 (and would cover his tax liability if he sold all of his shares).
Smartest thing Ballmer has ever done. In fact, I hear he’s diversifying by investing his ill-gotten gains in Apple shares.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
He should invest the profits into AAPL shares.
It would take more than a different CEO to fix the windows debacle. Their problem is the market has inoculated themselves against reverse engineering. If Microsoft has nothing to steal they basically have no product. What do you expect, competent innovation? I think not.
Hey, if I were in his shoes, I’d sure as hell want to get my chips off the table. Most of this guy’s net worth is tied up in shares of a company whose stock has declined by about half since the current CEO got the big chair to throw around.
-jcr
Even with the election results, tax rates for him will be compromised thanks to weak spined Republicans like McCain and Lindsay Graham, in that, for people who make too much money according to some other people, it would be best to claim this year and not have to give it to the likes of Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Schumer, Barney Frank, John Kerry, et al!
It’s what I’d do if circumstances were similar!
Steve Ballmer is bailing out.
Steve Jobs never sell a share of AAPL.
Umm…
Laughing all the way to the bank. $1.34 billion is not chump change, but it might foretell the coming chimp change.
@Smart move: Yep, best for Ballmy to pull that cash out now so those tax dollars can be given to John Boehner so he and his cronies can write budgets that destroy our constitution, our government, our way of life, mortgage what’s left onto our children, and allow Wall Street to sell our country to the communist Chinese. 同志，你为什么恨美国？
insider trading, that’s all. he knows the future is less than rosy, note the ‘diversification of funds’ bit, buying gold maybe? Maybe he also knows that when the board sack him next year, the stock price will drop.
Ya’ll think Ballmer got lots of “cookie” from chicks when he was young?
Shhhh… Ballmer has been very behaved all these years but finally realizes that if he doesn’t buy ‘more’ Apple’s stock now, he will regret for the rest of his life… he desperately needs those cashes…
@ Tommy Boy
Love it! That’s good thinking right there. God, I love smart people.
Somebody bought 1.3 Billion in Apple stock today…….
Once Ballmer leaves, MS will be eaten from the inside in a battle for power by their executive sharks. It will be an ugly and satisfying thing to watch.
@nerd
Right on! SUPER SMART. i wonder if Tommy has any stock advice for us while he’s expounding?
@Smart move
“..It’s what I’d do if circumstances were similar!…”
Right! And how many billions do you own?
If Ballmer doesn’t sell his stock now and waits
2 or 6 years ’till sympathetic to the ultra rich
Republicans get in, not only will he avoid the
‘tax burden’ but he’ll contribute nothing to the
“likes of Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Schumer, Barney
Frank, John Kerry, et al!”
Curious why you picked Barney Frank. Are you
having any problems?