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MS revenues have grown by 45 billion dollars under Ballmer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Ballmer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Ballmer). Without Ball

MS revenues have grown by 45 billion dollars under Ballmer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Ballmer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Ballmer). Without Ballmer .NET would not have existed and the XBox would not exist as it exists today. I have no great love for the guy but I've yet to read a convincing argument for his ouster. Just priggish former executives badmouthing the company that lifted them into the 1%.

gdilla 14y ago
imho, the biggest reason for his ouster was that he had no internet strategy - his plan A was buying Yahoo. No innovation, no imagination, no results.
- jmspring 14y ago
  Web strategy? Like media? Does a technology company need to have a content/media component -- which Yahoo basically is. Azure is a decent extension to the MS development ecosystem. Xbox and Xbox Live seem to be doing well -- I don't use either. Bing, while not Google, has it's fans. Where MSFT was late to the game is in their approach to the post-PC era. WinCE/WinMo were "ok" at the time, then the iPhone came along. Win8, Surface, WP8 are all relatively new - do I expect the same success as, say, XP or the like? Not really, but that path is still playing out for them.
  - gdilla 14y ago
    I meant Search and their media holdings. Not cloud services. Sorry for not clarifying.
  - stormen 14y ago
    Microsoft has lost; there's no getting back the head start they once had. It's not like Windows 8 is going to set the record straight and grow Microsoft to 10x the size of Apple and Google combined, like it once was. In part, this is because of their utterly flawed understanding of internet and the way humans (not businesses) work. Steve Ballmer is a joke of a CEO; a loud, screaming monkey that thought the iPhone was "cute". The guy is a moron.
    - rlu 14y ago
      Your comment seems pretty short sighted though, don't you think?
      - jlgreco 14y ago
        I think that it is only in the long term that Balmers mediocrity becomes clear. Short term analysis turns up that he really likes "DEVELOPERS!" and throwing chairs, but all the real criticisms (not amusing anecdotes) that I am seeing span several years.
    - hkmurakami 14y ago
      >Microsoft has lost; there's no getting back the head start they once had. Couldn't we have said the same thing when Apple lost to the IBM PC when they didn't "get" business computing? (the debacle that was the Apple III - a supposed "business" machine)
      - sswezey 14y ago
        Yes, and Apple had to completely reinvent itself to get to the point where it is now. Apple then and Apple now are two very different companies.
        jmspring 14y ago
        Apple didn't reinvent itself. It cut products to a bare minimum, invested in an OS (and infrastructure) to move beyond MacOS, and then used that success to invest in and build new products. It started with focus.
    - jmspring 14y ago
      Ballmer has been filmed screaming developers and talked about throwing a chair. MSFT revenues have grown under his time, but the company isn't sexy. Have there been opportunities lost? Yes. To say it has lost? They have many years of mocking their cash cows before all is lost. MSFT has an odd habit of learning and adapting. We will see if that still exists. It has been awhile but at one point MSFT spent more on pure research than AAPL did on their whole R&D budget. Research takes time, but AT&T and IBM aren't doing much of it these years. Investing in research is another plus, not in the near term.
  - SkyMarshal 14y ago
    I've been thinking for a while that Microsoft may have carved out a niche of letting others do the innovation, and then copying them and improving on it, not unlike Japanese companies. Windows Phone/Mobile, Surface, Xbox, Search Engine, and Azure are all effectively this model. Hackers place a high value on innovation, but continuously increasing revenues with this 'embrace and extend' + kaizen model seems to work for them so far.
    - zachinglis 14y ago
      This is the definition of creating. Bringing other ideas together, and making them better. Apple are exactly the same too. The stuff I love the most has come from elsewhere.
hkarthik 14y ago
Saying Ballmer is responsible for the existence of both .NET and Xbox is like saying Al Gore invented the internet. There were lots of very smart leaders and engineers involved in the creation of both of those and their contributions far outweigh Ballmer's decision to "green light" those projects back in the late 90s.
- nitid_name 14y ago
  "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system." I don't know, it seems fair to say that the person who made decisions about the direction of development that fostered the development has a claim on having caused said development.
  - velodrome 14y ago
    I think the question you need to ask is whether the outcome would still be the same if the "decision maker" did not exist. It's fair to say that Steve Jobs was a decision maker. Did he not take the "initiative"? Would Apple exist as it is today without him? Certainly not. Also, President Bill Clinton ordered Selective Availability for GPS. Basically allowing for more precise GPS coordinates for civilian use. Do you think this decision did not help foster the use GPS system in cars? My point is that decision makers cannot claim FULL credit for the development of a technology but they can claim credit nonetheless.
InclinedPlane 14y ago
Up until 2008 Bill Gates was running MS. From 2008 to today, the period of time when Ballmer was in charge and on his own, MS's revenue has grown by only 17%, adjusted for inflation. That's only 4% a year.
- zachinglis 14y ago
  Let's not forget their market share has dropped. A company is measured by it's today, and it's tomorrow.

gdilla 14y ago

imho, the biggest reason for his ouster was that he had no internet strategy - his plan A was buying Yahoo. No innovation, no imagination, no results.

jmspring 14y ago
Web strategy? Like media? Does a technology company need to have a content/media component -- which Yahoo basically is. Azure is a decent extension to the MS development ecosystem. Xbox and Xbox Live seem to be doing well -- I don't use either. Bing, while not Google, has it's fans. Where MSFT was late to the game is in their approach to the post-PC era. WinCE/WinMo were "ok" at the time, then the iPhone came along. Win8, Surface, WP8 are all relatively new - do I expect the same success as, say, XP or the like? Not really, but that path is still playing out for them.
- gdilla 14y ago
  I meant Search and their media holdings. Not cloud services. Sorry for not clarifying.
- stormen 14y ago
  Microsoft has lost; there's no getting back the head start they once had. It's not like Windows 8 is going to set the record straight and grow Microsoft to 10x the size of Apple and Google combined, like it once was. In part, this is because of their utterly flawed understanding of internet and the way humans (not businesses) work. Steve Ballmer is a joke of a CEO; a loud, screaming monkey that thought the iPhone was "cute". The guy is a moron.
  - rlu 14y ago
    Your comment seems pretty short sighted though, don't you think?
    - jlgreco 14y ago
      I think that it is only in the long term that Balmers mediocrity becomes clear. Short term analysis turns up that he really likes "DEVELOPERS!" and throwing chairs, but all the real criticisms (not amusing anecdotes) that I am seeing span several years.
  - hkmurakami 14y ago
    >Microsoft has lost; there's no getting back the head start they once had. Couldn't we have said the same thing when Apple lost to the IBM PC when they didn't "get" business computing? (the debacle that was the Apple III - a supposed "business" machine)
    - sswezey 14y ago
      Yes, and Apple had to completely reinvent itself to get to the point where it is now. Apple then and Apple now are two very different companies.
      - jmspring 14y ago
        Apple didn't reinvent itself. It cut products to a bare minimum, invested in an OS (and infrastructure) to move beyond MacOS, and then used that success to invest in and build new products. It started with focus.
  - jmspring 14y ago
    Ballmer has been filmed screaming developers and talked about throwing a chair. MSFT revenues have grown under his time, but the company isn't sexy. Have there been opportunities lost? Yes. To say it has lost? They have many years of mocking their cash cows before all is lost. MSFT has an odd habit of learning and adapting. We will see if that still exists. It has been awhile but at one point MSFT spent more on pure research than AAPL did on their whole R&D budget. Research takes time, but AT&T and IBM aren't doing much of it these years. Investing in research is another plus, not in the near term.
- SkyMarshal 14y ago
  I've been thinking for a while that Microsoft may have carved out a niche of letting others do the innovation, and then copying them and improving on it, not unlike Japanese companies. Windows Phone/Mobile, Surface, Xbox, Search Engine, and Azure are all effectively this model. Hackers place a high value on innovation, but continuously increasing revenues with this 'embrace and extend' + kaizen model seems to work for them so far.
  - zachinglis 14y ago
    This is the definition of creating. Bringing other ideas together, and making them better. Apple are exactly the same too. The stuff I love the most has come from elsewhere.

hkarthik 14y ago

Saying Ballmer is responsible for the existence of both .NET and Xbox is like saying Al Gore invented the internet. There were lots of very smart leaders and engineers involved in the creation of both of those and their contributions far outweigh Ballmer's decision to "green light" those projects back in the late 90s.

nitid_name 14y ago
"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system." I don't know, it seems fair to say that the person who made decisions about the direction of development that fostered the development has a claim on having caused said development.
- velodrome 14y ago
  I think the question you need to ask is whether the outcome would still be the same if the "decision maker" did not exist. It's fair to say that Steve Jobs was a decision maker. Did he not take the "initiative"? Would Apple exist as it is today without him? Certainly not. Also, President Bill Clinton ordered Selective Availability for GPS. Basically allowing for more precise GPS coordinates for civilian use. Do you think this decision did not help foster the use GPS system in cars? My point is that decision makers cannot claim FULL credit for the development of a technology but they can claim credit nonetheless.

InclinedPlane 14y ago

Up until 2008 Bill Gates was running MS. From 2008 to today, the period of time when Ballmer was in charge and on his own, MS's revenue has grown by only 17%, adjusted for inflation. That's only 4% a year.

zachinglis 14y ago
Let's not forget their market share has dropped. A company is measured by it's today, and it's tomorrow.