“Stock futures have moved into positive territory just ahead of the opening bell amid a mixed bag of trading overseas, with emerging markets finally showing signs of recovery after more than a week of heavy losses,” Darcy Keith reports The Globe and Mail.
“Microsoft shares [surged in early trading],” Keith reports. “The company announced that CEO Steve Ballmer will retire in the next 12 months. Microsoft is a Dow component, so the stock surge should help give a left to that index as well.”
Keith reports, “[Ballmer] will stay on until his successor is chosen.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: May it take forever and a day to find a successor!
Related article:
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months as BoD initiates succession process – August 23, 2013
Will I see him in one of the Disneyland ?
MS stock did *not* “surge”, it went up a little, but less than it was up in the past month, and way, way below its 3 month high. This was a tiny blip. Essentially no one cares that Balmer is leaving, which says some very bad things about what confidence investors have in the future of the company. The only way the company really has a future is if they get rid of the whole board, and especially Bill Gates, and replace them with a group of intelligent managers that would never consider hiring Balmer.
dewd ….MSFT is up 6% right now, hardly a normal average day.
Well I guess the apple stock app didn’t show that spike as it was much less on there when I made that post. It still hasn’t recovered back to its 3 month high so most of what I said still stands.
Wish Monkey Boy stayed on to put the company out of his misery. But investors are not patient people, and I’m surprised this took as long as it did. Hope his successor puts the nails in the coffin.
If only the handsome devil had a son. Oh wait …
Ballmer has done humanity a great and entirely unintentional service.
Isn’t Scott Forstall looking for a job?
That would be awesome for him, but I wonder if he could stomach the culture.
It’d be funny if he was considered, but I think Forestall is biding his time and waiting for his “Jobsian” comeback in 10 years.
Pull a Nokia.
Maybe Carl Icahn will have dinner with Balmer next week?
Balmer would bring fava beans and a nice Chianti. Call would just bring a large trash bag. It would be an interesting dinner.
A large trash bag and a shovel?
That headline made me actually lol
It’s only helping him though, he’ll sit back and collect. He’s up there in the forbes 400.
Actually, he has no “retirement plan” or “golden parachute” through MS, they don’t include Executives in those plans.
“Microsoft doesn’t offer “special retirement programs” or severance pay for its executives, according to a regulatory filing. But once the bombastic Ballmer leaves Microsoft, he’ll still be an extremely rich man.
Ballmer owns more than 333 million shares of Microsoft. That nearly 4% stake in the company is currently worth $11.5 billion. Forbes magazine says Ballmer is the 22nd richest person in America, and he ranks an impressive No. 51 among the world’s billionaires.”
How will Ballmer’s leaving MS make Apple a better company? Maybe if MS hires a true leader Apple will actually have to compete with MS.
Therefore, I pray that MS hires a person that generates a little anxiety in the boardrooms of Apple and stimulates Apple to excel.
Go, MS, go. Move Apple off its complacent ass.
It’s not that Apple doesn’t excel, it’s that they only seem to do it once a year. That’s the perception when new software features are rolled out every few months by their biggest rival (Samsung), never mind combining all the Android vendors plus Blackberry and Microsoft.
Hardware should remain at an annual refresh, but I’d like to see two major iOS milestones each year–a full version bump, e.g. iOS7 in Sept/Oct, and a v7.5 with at least a couple new features in the spring, rather than a full year of mostly bug fixes and minor improvements.
You have no idea. The greater the competition the better the products and services consumers can select. Eliminate competition and all that remains is mediocrity.
Apple does not Excel. Apple does Numbers. It’s Microsoft that does Excel. 😉
Microsoft does do Excel but they don’t excel.
Apple excels because their Numbers add up.
Word.
(Except a few hundred Words gets you Pages… 😉 )
Brilliant!
Wow! You couldn’t be more wrong. Apple is a proactive company, not reactive to competitive actions. Apple leads by innovating in response to their perceptions of user needs and technology’s evolving potential. If anyone else was competitively driven there never would have been the market opportunity that only Apple seized with the iPhone. Nokia et al. were milking the market and so was everyone else; the existence of competitors doesn’t necessariily create a competitive imperative if they’re all coasting. As for the speed of Apple’s innovation, (a) who else is innovating – certainly not Samsung, Nokia, MS, and (b) real innovation takes the time it takes in research and development, the priority is quality not arbitrary scheduling.
Apple is primarily interested in consumers’ needs and not the slightest bit concerned what other companies are selling? Are you kidding? If Apple worked in an vacuum it would never be as successful as it is. You are deluded.
MacFreek,
You are an ignorant, stupid, snippy little boy. AT has more knowledge of how business works than you have in your little finger.
Wanna bet Bill Gates will try to come back as a CEO in a “Me Too” movement?
Bill Gates is committed to his foundation. No way he will come back hes too busy trying to save the world.
no, he can’t leave. He is not done destroying microfluffy.
If MS produces shit and Apple has to compete with shit you will have to choose between two varieties of shit. Enjoy your fecal sandwich, fanboy.
MacFraud, eat shit and die.
Rorschach, how’s that sandwich taste or does your breath normally smell like the fetid recesses of Ballmer’s rectal recess?
@MacFreek
What kind of psychiatric condition do you have to come here repeatedly, where no-one wants you, to write this infantile vomit that no-one wants to read.
Is this really the best use of your time, day by day. Isn’t there SOMETHING that would make your life more fulfilling. Very, very, very pathetic.
Tell me, what is so fulfilling about being a biased, incoherent, insecure, and utterly predictable Apple fanboy? If I yank your chain, tool, that’s all the fulfillment that I need. Hope that answers you question.
“If I yank your chain, tool, that’s all the fulfillment that I need.”
So, in other words, you are simply a pathetic little wannabe bully — poking at people long-distance and anonymously to get your jollies.
And you really have NO clue how very pathetic that is? What a putrid small life you must have.
If I disturb your pathetic world I might be doing you some good by rousing you from your fanboy-induced delirium. You can thank me later, once you have regained cognitive awareness.
re “If I disturb your pathetic world I might be doing you some good by rousing you from your fanboy-induced delirium.”
So there are two possibilities.
– You are either a small-minded pathetic little fuckhead bully.
– Or you have concern for and want to influence people.
If it is the latter, you obviously have ZERO idea on how to have influence with others. Nobody wants to listen to someone who is so blazingly arrogant, belligerent, rude and disrespectful. ‘Shooting yourself in the foot’ is a gross understatement for your manner of writing.
One of the most famous speeches of all time was NOT, “I have a dream, you bunch of clusterfuck dipshits. Listen up you friggin’ assholes.”
Hmmm. I wonder why not.
Nor will you learn in a Toastmasters course to swear a lot and incessantly insult people. I wonder why not.
People are persuaded to new points of view by logical ideas that are clearly, reasonable and respectfully articulated —- and when those ideas also show the listener that their self interest is best served by the new idea. NO-ONE is persuaded by the swearing and insulting you so frequently dirty this site with.
Imagine talking to a boss like that about some brilliant idea you have for improving the company. Your boss won’t hear anything. It’s just be, “blah, blah, blah, you ignorant fuck.” To which the response will, of course, be, “You fired.”
Or imagine talking to some 300lb biker like that. You’re going to get your teeth caved in – or worse. I’m tending to think you don’t actually talk to people like that face to face… because the consequences would be too emotionally, financially and physically dangerous.
I personally think you are so twisted with hatred and poison that nothing you say is valid. I dismiss it all automatically. That is the effect of your manner of writing. I’m certain that close to 100% of others here react the same way. sure. If you want to EVER move even a tiny distance closer to your goal, prove us wrong by simply making your points with zero name-calling, swearing or insults.
Get your testosterone under control, and think whether you actually want to accomplish anything constructive.
– If you do want to contribute anything positive, change how you write.
– If you don’t, then you your words are much worse that a mere waste of space. If that is the case, please do us all a favor and just fuck off.
“If I yank your chain, tool, that’s all the fulfillment that I need.”
You should realize that you don’t yank anybody’s chain, in the sense of presenting any thoughts that disturb anyone. The only disturbance your posts present is similar to stepping in a large pile of dog shit.
And it is really profoundly and mind-bogglingly pathetic that yanking other’s chains is a source of fulfillment to you. I suggest: 1. Grow up. 2. Get a life.
Tell me, what is so fulfilling about being a biased, incoherent, insecure, and utterly predictable Googsung troll? If I yank your chain, tool, that’s all the fulfillment that I need. Hope that answers you question.
You don’t bother me, tool. I laugh at you and your kind.
@MDN – re MacFreek
Once again I request that you enforce the “must be 8-years-old to post” rule, and, therefore, kick the poisonous little fuck MacFreek off this forum.
That’s enough out of you John Dvorak!
Yuck, yuck. Your fanboy audience will nod their heads in mindless rhythm and repeat their customary mantras on que like the tools they are.
Yuck, yuck. Your Googsung audience will nod their heads in mindless rhythm and repeat their customary mantras on que like the tools they are.
Quite the contrast…..Jobs passes away and the stock goes in the toilet. Balmer leaves and the stock surges. Gotta be a real ego builder, right?
This is an interesting article from 2000 about Ballmer taking the reins:
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/14/business/microsoft-names-a-new-chief-executive.html
What a legacy! Run a company into the dirt cuz it can’t keep up! Microsoft Is the new VHS video retail store destined for failure while the world streams everything by!
Looking for a successor for Ballmer, look no further than Bozo the Clown ( No disrespect to Bozo!).
He lasted this long…hell, MS lasted this long because of the CASH COWS the Gov allowed them to run! Whoever takes over can be a complete tool like Ballmer and the revenue will still come in as usual.
“The revenue will still come in as usual…”
Maybe not as the German government has been rumored to claim that Win8 has backdoors that the NSA can use, which was quickly denied.
Well, with all the Windows & front door access, who cares about back doors.
Windows and Office are both vulnerable. Windows to connected devices such as iOS and Android, and Office to the fact that the iPad showed that Office is not “necessary” like MS claims. MS could have put Office on there and protected their moat, but by not doing so they have possibly doomed their future.
No surge. Just a blip. His retirement was obviously known to major investors months ago. This news drop on the slowest news day of the year is just a footnote.
If Microsoft hires Marisa Meyer for CEO I might have to consider switching allegiances. 🙂
Marissa Mayer that is.
For a real turn around they need to change the structure. Co-CEOs would be a real change. And there just happen to be a couple with experience in that environment who are available! Devices and Services… right up their alley, eh?
I searched this whole thread for a comment from BallmersLeftNut… Disappointed.
We’re sorry, but BLN is in deep mourning. He has just realized his raison-de-être has announced his retirement and BLN has been effectively neutered. The depression is overwhelming. . . it is all BLN can do to not consider screen-name suicide at this point. It is very sad.
He said as long as he works at M$, he would never have an Apple product in his household. I guess the wife & kids won this round & now they can have any Apple product they want.
OK, this is a good chance to buy MS. lady & gen. it is pleased to tell you I will acquire MS soon.