Microsoft short-timer Ballmer loses over half his bonus over failure to compete with Apple

“Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer received $1.26 million in compensation for the 2013 fiscal year, missing out on more than half of his potential bonus as the company struggles in mobile devices,” Dina Bass and Ian King report for Bloomberg.

“Ballmer received a bonus of $550,000, 79 percent of his base salary, for the 12 months ended June 30, the Redmond, Washington-based company said in a filing yesterday. He was eligible for as much as 200 percent of his base,” Bass and King report. “Microsoft’s board cited disappointing sales of its Surface tablets and difficulties in the PC market for its assessment of the CEO’s performance.”

Bass and King report, “Ballmer, who is retiring within a year, also received less than half of his maximum bonus in 2012 and half in the year prior because of shortcomings in the performance of business units including Windows and mobile phones. His salary was $697,500 for the past fiscal year… The company, which introduced two new versions of its Surface tablets last month, entered the market dominated by Apple’s iPad… Designed to keep its Windows software relevant as consumers shift to tablets from personal computers and laptops, the Surface instead generated such little demand that Microsoft took a $900 million inventory writedown last quarter.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Tragic.