“When Steve Ballmer took over as CEO in January 2000, Microsoft was the titan of tech and the world’s most valuable company.
My, how things have changed,” Matthew Craft and Christina Rexrode report for The Associated Press.
“In the 13 years since Bill Gates handed over the CEO spot, the technology landscape has seen seismic shifts. The Internet bubble popped, erasing paper fortunes built on dot.com companies. Apple’s iPods, iPhones and iPads became ubiquitous. Google became a verb. And Facebook turned social networking into something you do by yourself, instead of surrounded by people at happy hour,” Craft and Rexrode report. “The years have been less kind to Microsoft. ‘Complacency and a lack of innovation caught up to them,’ said Yun Kim, an analyst at Janney Capital Markets. ‘It’s their inability to stay relevant beyond the PC.'”
Craft and Rexrode report, “When Ballmer became CEO, Microsoft had a market value of $604 billion… Now, Microsoft’s market value is $269 billion, less than half of its value when Ballmer came to power… Under Ballmer, Microsoft’s stock has been a dud, losing 44 percent during his tenure. Still, dividend payments have compensated for some of the slump. An investment of $1,000 in January 2000 would now be worth just $767 after reinvesting dividends, according to data from FactSet. The same investment in Apple would be worth $20,120.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “TomL” for the heads up.]