5 ms·

Excerpts from infamous mini-msft blog (in 2005 another msft employee venting anonymously): "I mean, what has he done or not done that is impacting the stock?"

by achow 8y ago

Excerpts from infamous mini-msft blog (in 2005 another msft employee venting anonymously): "I mean, what has he done or not done that is impacting the stock?" - along with Gates, made decisions that resulted in the company being found guilty of breaking the law twice(and counting)resulting in fines, restrictions... - along with Gates, invested over $10B of cash in failed telecom investments that ended up being written off - failed to make any meaningful investments at the bottom of the market crash when numerous companies were available for cheap.. - invested $10B's in various "emerging" businesses that even years later represent only about 10% of MSFT's revenue, aren't growing at even 10%.. - approved the onerous Licensing 6 program when many companies were hurting economically thereby pissing off a good portion of our customers and fueling the move to Open Source. - has been at the helm as MSFT failed to take security seriously and then has had to drop everything to play catch up, missed the paid search move and had to play catch up, missed the move to web services and had to play catch up, missed the portable music wave and had to play catch up, let IE stagnate and had to play catch up, and now seemingly can't ship any major product on time even stripped of formerly core features (can you say Longhorn, CRM, SQL, VS, etc. etc. etc?). Continued... http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2005/03/old-school-competencies.html#c111169237226667511 http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2005/03/old-school-competencies...

Adrock 8y ago
I'll add one more: https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/09/06/microsoft-stock-history-how-the-tech-giant-made-sh.aspx https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/09/06/microsoft-stock-hi... Take a look at the chart. Ballmer was CEO from January 2000 to February 2014.
- Delmania 8y ago
  In the words of John Gruber of Daring Fireball, Ballmer knows how to make money. People will disagree with his decisions but the results don’t lie.
- justin66 8y ago
  > Take a look at the chart. ...and keep in mind that it doesn't capture the money paid out in dividends for over a decade.
  - Fnoord 8y ago
    Yeah, wasn't there some kind of thing as "splits" which skews the stock price? Or is that it?
sonnyblarney 8y ago
During Ballmers tenure, the company massively increased it's revenues and profits, and they were exceptional in other areas. 'Missed paid search' and 'missed music player' etc. etc. are all haughty claims - MS was never an internet oriented business, it's like saying 'Oracle missed the search business' - well sure. Just like Google missed social? Or Facebook missed mobile? Or missed photo-sharing? I'm no fan of Ballmer or MSFT, but if the goal of MSFT is to make money via decent products that work well enough in the eyes of their buyers, he did that. Just not in the way that you might want or expect them to. I like Satya more, but give it a few years and we can judge then.
- mgkimsal 8y ago
  > it's like saying 'Oracle missed the search business' did Oracle spend lots of $ and resources trying to get in to search?
  - sonnyblarney 8y ago
    If MS didn't then they would be lambasted just the same. As it stands, at least MSFT has a presence which entails at least strategic advantage. Not trying would be worse than trying and failing. But it doesn't matter - they're not a search company, it's such a different beast. Why on earth do people expect that MSFT should have been the king of that domain I have no idea.
- nojvek 8y ago
  Satya is already wayyyy more succesful as a CEO than Steve Ballmer ever was. MSFT stock price took a big dip after 2000 and never recovered in Ballmer from 2000 - 2014. He was a decent CEO in the sense that he didn't kill MSFT like Marissa Mayer did to Yahoo. He missed a ton of opportunities and messed a lot of things like Nokia and Skype acquisitions that barely panned out. He let Apple and Google steal the mobile show when Windows Mobile had been the smart phone king for a long time. Microsoft used to be #1, now they are behind Apple, Amazon and Google. Granted, he was good at milking the Windows and Office cash cows that had been gifted to him from Gates era, but he spent an insane amount of money on things that never panned out. MSFT has a lot of money in the bank account so I'm sure they'll be fine even if they put a rock in the CEO seat.

by achow 8y ago

Adrock 8y ago

I'll add one more: https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/09/06/microsoft-stock-history-how-the-tech-giant-made-sh.aspx https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/09/06/microsoft-stock-hi... Take a look at the chart. Ballmer was CEO from January 2000 to February 2014.

Delmania 8y ago
In the words of John Gruber of Daring Fireball, Ballmer knows how to make money. People will disagree with his decisions but the results don’t lie.
justin66 8y ago
> Take a look at the chart. ...and keep in mind that it doesn't capture the money paid out in dividends for over a decade.
- Fnoord 8y ago
  Yeah, wasn't there some kind of thing as "splits" which skews the stock price? Or is that it?

sonnyblarney 8y ago

During Ballmers tenure, the company massively increased it's revenues and profits, and they were exceptional in other areas. 'Missed paid search' and 'missed music player' etc. etc. are all haughty claims - MS was never an internet oriented business, it's like saying 'Oracle missed the search business' - well sure. Just like Google missed social? Or Facebook missed mobile? Or missed photo-sharing? I'm no fan of Ballmer or MSFT, but if the goal of MSFT is to make money via decent products that work well enough in the eyes of their buyers, he did that. Just not in the way that you might want or expect them to. I like Satya more, but give it a few years and we can judge then.

mgkimsal 8y ago
> it's like saying 'Oracle missed the search business' did Oracle spend lots of $ and resources trying to get in to search?
- sonnyblarney 8y ago
  If MS didn't then they would be lambasted just the same. As it stands, at least MSFT has a presence which entails at least strategic advantage. Not trying would be worse than trying and failing. But it doesn't matter - they're not a search company, it's such a different beast. Why on earth do people expect that MSFT should have been the king of that domain I have no idea.
nojvek 8y ago
Satya is already wayyyy more succesful as a CEO than Steve Ballmer ever was. MSFT stock price took a big dip after 2000 and never recovered in Ballmer from 2000 - 2014. He was a decent CEO in the sense that he didn't kill MSFT like Marissa Mayer did to Yahoo. He missed a ton of opportunities and messed a lot of things like Nokia and Skype acquisitions that barely panned out. He let Apple and Google steal the mobile show when Windows Mobile had been the smart phone king for a long time. Microsoft used to be #1, now they are behind Apple, Amazon and Google. Granted, he was good at milking the Windows and Office cash cows that had been gifted to him from Gates era, but he spent an insane amount of money on things that never panned out. MSFT has a lot of money in the bank account so I'm sure they'll be fine even if they put a rock in the CEO seat.