The credulous initial stories about his "retirement" were funny. Ballmer was 100% fired. In the long term, the company seriously failed on many fronts. In the s

The credulous initial stories about his "retirement" were funny. Ballmer was 100% fired. In the long term, the company seriously failed on many fronts. In the short term, Ballmer posted poor quarterly results and sent out a rambling 1400-page email about reorganizing the company, a last ditch effort to show the board he was trying to right the ship. How often does a CEO announce a major reorganization and then quit? And MSFT's official statement says Ballmer is out as soon as they find a successor. It was kind of the board not to cap him execution-style, since he'd put in 30 years of loyal service, but let's be honest about what this "retirement" really is.