11 ms·
Steve Ballmer steps down as board member at Microsoft
- barkingcat 12y agotwo pr teams talking to each other. I would have written: Steve to Satya: I love Microsoft, and I feel like I can trust you to take on the world for me. Microsoft must live. Here, take some seasons tickets for the Clippers. Satya to Steve: Hey dude, I need to make Microsoft faster, leaner, and stronger. I'm glad I passed the 1st date test with you and the rest of the board. I'll take those seasons tickets now.
- heropotato 12y agoExactly true.
- chimeracoder 12y agoHonestly, quite possibly the same PR team drafted both letters.
- heropotato 12y agoPossibly, written by the same person.
- thedaveoflife 12y agoThis is such a ridiculous scenario that I hope it's how it actually happened.
- TeMPOraL 12y agoSomebody at MS PR is having a good laugh with friends over beers now.
- hnnewguy 12y ago>quite possibly the same PR team drafted both letters. How cynical are you people that you don't think long-time corporate executives can sit down and write a professional, "safe" sounding, 500 word resignation letter?
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- chasingtheflow 12y agoReading this, "No company in the world has the mix of software skills, cloud skills, and hardware skills we have assembled", only got me thinking of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gosFtO6504 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gosFtO6504
- jacquesm 12y agoPoorly written? 'then him'? 'bolness'? Funny.
- Arnor 12y agoThis comment thread should be in the HN hall of fame. Classic :)
- jerf 12y agoWhy do you think that we think that's what happened because the two executives "can't"? I think it happened because both had lawyers looking it over due to the fact both are operating in the heavily regulated space of high-level officers in one of the world's largest publicly traded companies, and it would be suicidally stupid to not have lawyers looking over your every official utterance... and while the words are in the lawyers hands, the PR department might as well have a go too, since it's not a hard guess to think this could go mobile-first, cloud-first... er... public.
- kaonashi 12y agoIt's not whether or not he can, it's whether or not he did.
- UVB-76 12y ago> Honestly, ... I see what you did there!
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- yuhong 12y agoI think Satya is known for doing that.
- bagrow 12y agoClippers! Clippers! Clippers!
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- xtc 12y agoI think Clippys is now a more suitable name.
- whoopdedo 12y ago"I see that you're trying to post up. Would you like me to set a screen?"
- lotharbot 12y agoI love how that matches Clippy's standard incompetence, since generally speaking screens are for creating openings to drive or take jumpers. Sometimes you see a screen designed to get a guy into good post position, but usually not.
- danieltillett 12y agoThis is the funniest post I have read on HN in months - pure genius.
- saeranv 12y agoBallmer's weirdly suited to be owner of the Clippers. Coming in to Eminiem's 'Lose Yourself', practically hysterical with excitement is kind of cool. Much, much better than Sterling. If the owner couldn't be Magic Johnson, I'm glad it's a superfan like Ballmer.
- k-mcgrady 12y ago>> I bleed Microsoft — have for 34 years and I always will. No matter what you think about Ballmer you have to admit his passion for Microsoft is unrivalled.
- sp3000 12y agoHe's just an inherently passionate person. His energy levels are just off the charts. One day we will map the Ballmer genome and see where exactly all this energy comes from.
- thinkpad20 12y agoI... love... this... company YEAAAAAHAHH
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- keithnoizu 12y agoThe Ballmer impersonator free runner a few years back at the company meeting was good.
- CamperBob2 12y agoHis spelling needs a bit of work, though. There's only one 'e' in 'bled.'
- jusben1369 12y agoWhy are you past tensing him though?
- noir_lord 12y agoIt's a joke (I think). In the old days Doctors used to bleed a patient who was ill to let out the poison "I bled him but unfortunately he died". That or he is implying that he did nothing but suck the blood for 30 years while others did the actual important work.
- sargun 12y agoIt's amazing to see what Ballmer stepping down from Microsoft has done. Microsoft's stock has outperformed Google's in the past year: https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chfdeh=0&chdet=1408478400000&chddm=98923&cmpto=NASDAQ:GOOG;NASDAQ:MSFT&cmptdms=0;0&q=goog https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chfdeh=0&chdet=140847..., msft&ntsp=0&ei=qJbzU7D4JvLLiQLNuYCACg
- davis 12y agoI think you'd be interested in reading Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Specifically, he addresses CEO's as well as the stock market. I think equating Ballmer's leaving of Microsoft to the stock market success is coincidental at best.
- Chronic29 12y agoYou're telling me that the day Ballmer left is no way related to the huge uptick in the stock when the tech industry on average was negative that day?
- mark-r 12y agoAnybody struck by the number of times the word "bold" was used? What do you suppose is the hidden meaning behind that?
- barkingcat 12y agovery bold! and mobile-first too!
- larrys 12y agoAn attempt to highlight how much gambling they will be doing going forward as opposed to simply riding some (much easier) opportunity. "Microsoft will need to be bold and make big bets to succeed in this new environment. Writing great software is a tremendous accomplishment and selling software has been a fabulous business. In the mobile-first, cloud-first world, software development is a key skill, but success requires moving to monetization through enterprise subscriptions, hardware gross margins, and advertising revenues. Making that change while also managing the existing software business well requires a boldness and fearlessness that I believe the management team has." "Big bets" - we won't win everything we try or even come close. Some of the things we do will make us look foolish. "software development is a key skill, but success" (it's not the olden days when we had a lock on things) "moving to monetization through enterprise subscriptions, hardware gross margins, and advertising revenues" (I'm not sticking around for this one, best of luck!) "well requires a boldness and fearlessness that I believe the management team has" (but I"m not certain after all I didn't say "I'm sure" I said "I believe". Ballmer want's to leave the party before the end or at least when all the good food and booze is gone.
- ryen 12y agoMaybe they misspelled "bald"
- xnull 12y agoNobody actually communicates like that, in terms of company slogans like cloud-first mobile-first and describing each other as having boldness and innovation. Not even CEOs. This is a crafted communication targeting information to Microsoft employees and investors. It is not a 'leaked memo'. I've heard it said that Ballmer's retirement had much more to do with strategic board shuffling to prevent predatory dividend dumping from the vulture capitol firm ValueAct Capitol.
- hnnewguy 12y ago>This is a crafted communication targeting information to Microsoft employees and investors. It is not a 'leaked memo'. Leaked memo? Who made that claim? It's posted on Microsoft's own website. Carefully crafted? Uh, yeah, it's a resignation letter from a major corporate executive that is publicly posted. Should it have some LOLs and emojis?
- xnull 12y agoIt has not been claimed that it was a leaked memo. I must apologize for the imprecision of the word 'leaked'. 'Published' is a better word than 'leaked' and should have used it instead. To reiterate the point without the confusion regarding 'leaked': The media is the message. The form of the news/announcement of the resignation came in shape of a memoized email exchange, as if these actual words between Ballmer and Satya were exchanged in this actual format. I submit that they were not. I submit that the substantial majority of the content was not written by or for Satya nor by or for Ballmer, but that this announcement is for employees and investors to read. I submit that it is also a method for Microsoft to contextualize a complicated decision for the tech media and for the digestion of the broader interested public.
- kelukelugames 12y agoFive years ago I joined Microsoft. I have been neutral to pro-Ballmer the whole time, but this chart explains why many people were unhappy with him. https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1408478400000&chddm=543131&chls=IntervalBasedLine&cmpto=NASDAQ:AAPL;NASDAQ:GOOG;NASDAQ:AMZN;NYSEARCA:SPY&cmptdms=0;0;0;0&q=NASDAQ:MSFT&ntsp=0&ei=9pfzU8iLHsSyiAKN7IGoCA https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&...
- hackaflocka 12y agoHow did you make that chart please? Specifically, the percentage on the y-axis -- how does one get that? Thanks.
- jonlucc 12y agoIf you add more than one stock to a Google Finance chart, it should automatically change the y-axis to %.
- hackaflocka 12y agoMerci.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- jeswin 12y agoI am not a big fan of Microsoft. But how many companies do I know which have grown revenue year after year for FORTY* years? Must give this man (and Bill) credit, for that is a near impossible task. * Except a couple of near misses.
- robotresearcher 12y agoVery interesting chart. MS matches Dow Jones almost exactly in recent years. NASDAQ did usefully better. On that evidence there's not much reason to invest directly in MS.
- tyler_ball 12y agoHe's got bigger things to do: http://instagram.com/p/r2jjTdhQFx/ http://instagram.com/p/r2jjTdhQFx/
- UVB-76 12y agoHow out of touch does a corporation have to be to announce the resignation of a board member in this manner?
- kelukelugames 12y agoI'm hoping the target audience is 50 year old millionare shareholders and not us peasant folks.
- dwelch2344 12y ago"Mobile-first, cloud-first"... I've used their cloud and even our .NET fanboys voted it off the island at our shop. And mobile first? Do they even have a mobile offering? I mean, sure, the Slate is kind of cool. But doesn't your company need marketshare to say that you're "mobile-first"?
- logn 12y agoWhat they mean is that in the face of criticism exactly such as yours, that Microsoft will not revert to server-closet, workstation first in order to keep the easy flow of cash coming. Think AOL at the start of the broadband era. Microsoft doesn't want to become a mindless machine with ever dwindling returns.
- marcosdumay 12y agoFunny thing. Has the cloud market already become larger than the server market? And has the mobile market already become larger than the desktop/laptop market? I ask because there are always lots of markets that appear, grow like crazy, stealing money from another related market, and then saturate, without ever getting bigger than the original one. The trend we saw in computers - where every new generation brings a cheaper incumbent that plainly wins is an exception, not the rule. I'd be quite open about a new generation of computers being an exception again, I even tought they'd be for a while. But there is no way the mobile (phones + tablet) market will grow a lot anymore. How many phones does a person need? The cloud (IaS) market has space to grow, but so do servers, and each has its own set of advantajes, thus there's no reason to imagine that the cloud will "win" while servers "lose".
- logn 12y agoI think that the cloud will win, if only because it's the logical first step for any small customer (which you can later up-sell). And large customers will be won over when you tell them they never have to upgrade again and that uptime/security is guaranteed by an SLA. Businesses love eliminating liability and risk, and theoretically the cloud can win on both counts. Also, I think mobile-first will win via the web and because mobile is the lowest common denominator (you can put a qwerty keyboard and browser on any full computer). My $.02 though, it's a huge gamble for Microsoft to beat others in this space. If I were Microsoft I'd be buying Pandora, Redbox, Sirius XM, expanding MSNBC, and putting more into Xbox. That space is all about negotiating with parties and exploiting your dominance, which they've proved to be masters at over the years. For Microsoft to win in the cloud and mobile, I think they need to embrace open source and common platforms similar to IBM and Oracle, and I think they can never summon that desire.
- foxhill 12y agosome people are born without the ability to walk. others, are born without the gift of hearing. i was born with an incredibly low "cringe" threshold. reading this "exchange" almost put me in a coma.
- larrydag 12y ago"success requires moving to monetization through enterprise subscriptions, hardware gross margins, and advertising revenues" That's a big step for Microsoft. My opinion is that they are late on subscriptions and ad revenues.
- jusben1369 12y agoIf they were early Steve probably would still be running the ship.
- angersock 12y agoThey were too busy building real value instead of chasing ad revenue for a long time--I'm okay with that.
- Pxtl 12y agoYou mean churning by creating frameworks and brands and then dropping them within a year or two? Quick, what's their free email service called today?
- angersock 12y agooutlook.com? Also, note that Google/Apple can be quite gnarly about frameworks and brands, right? How's that Wave thing going? Groups? Reader?
- jenscow 12y agoMost of us who have been developing with the Microsoft stack have been burnt at least twice with key frameworks/technologies that have been artificially end-of-lifed while at their peak, leaving our projects based on obsolete technologies at v1. I suspect that is what the parent comment is about, and not immature projects that were discontinued (with ample warning and exit) due mostly to lack of interest, as mentioned in your counter-bicker.
- 12y ago
- make3 12y agoboldness bold boldness bold boldd bold.. ness.
- markab21 12y agoYeah, it read like a BBQ sauce commercial. Sweet Baby Rays - big bold taste.
- mark_l_watson 12y agoHealthy thing for him to do. People should have two or three distinct careers, in my opinion, in their lives. I hope he has a blast owning the Clippers and teaching. Off topic, but: I have been a bit negative on Microsoft since NT, which I liked and helped me get work done. However, I like their direction with Office 365 for all devices and their high end Surface Pro 3.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- jusben1369 12y agoIt's very difficult for the new CEO and old CEO to be on the board together for 100+ reasons. As stated this comes at the 6 month mark. I'm sure this was all part of a carefully crafted calendar going back to the transition.
- barkingcat 12y agoBill and Steve were together on the board for a long time, but I think the pair is the exception rather than the norm.
- nostrademons 12y agoEric Schmidt is still on Google's board. Pierre Omidyar is still on EBay's board. Reid Hoffman is still on LinkedIn's board. It does seem to be more of an exception when the ex-CEO is not also a founder (or someone very close to the founders, like Schmidt). Carly Fiorina is not on HP's board, Meg Whitman is not on EBay's board (although, ironically, she is on HP's). Lou Gerstner is not on IBM's board.
- georgemcbay 12y agoAlso besides just the pairing the circumstances were pretty different. It seemed pretty clear that Bill wanted out for a while before he left (as CEO) but I don't think Steve did, regardless of what the official story is.
- jlebar 12y agoBoldness aside, this sentence struck me: > I have confidence in our approach of mobile-first, cloud- > first, and in our primary innovation emphasis on platforms > and productivity and the building of capability in devices > and services as core business drivers. That's a lot to have confidence in. Is this tangled web of nested lists Microsoft's idea of "focus"? cf. Apple, Google, and Amazon's mission statements.
- benologist 12y agoDid Microsoft declare that their mission statement or is it just a few things a very large organization considers important?
- gtirloni 12y agoMission statements are usually pure BS. Microsoft is too big to have a single focus. Google has discovered that recently. Apple is still having some focus, but just made a joint PR with IBM about enterprise-y stuff.. so where's the focus? I'm trying to think of a huge company with a specifc focus and I can't. Perhaps others can weight in here.
- Systemic33 12y agoI'm quite certain Intel is pretty focused on making faster, smaller and more efficient processors.
- jamin 12y agoThey certainly have their fingers in more pies than just processors.
- kalleboo 12y agoTelecoms companies still seem pretty focused (Cisco, Ericsson). Does Nintendo count as huge?
- gtirloni 12y ago
- georgeecollins 12y agoFor those who don't speak corporate: " Under your leadership, we created an incredible foundation that we continue to build on — and Microsoft will thrive in the mobile-first, cloud-first world. " = your plan failed and here is what we are going to do now instead
- b_emery 12y agoJust change the and ("— and Microsoft") to "but Microsoft", and you get the true meaning.
- jere 12y agoYou know those extensions that replace 'cloud' with 'butt'? It might be worthwhile to replace the entire phrase 'mobile-first, cloud-first world' with 'butt': >In the butt, software development is a key skill... >Under your leadership, we created an incredible foundation that we continue to build on — and Microsoft will thrive in the butt.
- pkozlowski_os 12y agoBla, bla, bal... How about showing us some great products instead?
- at-fates-hands 12y agoThis sounds a lot like a pro athlete that realizes its time to really retire and stop chasing his dreams from 10 years ago when he was able to play a really high level.
- vxNsr 12y agoA lot of people here are calling most of the letter marketing speak, that may be true, but Satya has been talking about mobile-first cloud-based since he became CEO, like I haven't seen him do a single interview or public appearance where he doesn't mention at least one of the two things.
- apparentlykid 12y agoNew CEO's - or even existing ones - only have so many things they can openly talk about. Listen to Marissa's interviews over the past year - I had to since I was preparing for an interview and the repetition in her talk was almost maddening!
- kjjw 12y agoThank you for all your cloud first, mobile first. I think that cloud first, mobile first, but that cloud first, mobile first. If only cloud first, mobile first,then cloud first, mobile first. But I digress, because what is really important here is our cloud first, mobile first strategy, which will require much cloud first, mobile first along with cloud first, mobile first. I reckon Ballmer's PR drone won this one though. More words.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- smanuel 12y agoI'm lost. Which one is first and which one is first? Cloud is important and has to be first. But if cloud is first then mobile is first. And vice versa.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- ossreality 12y ago1. You spelled cloud wrong. 2. OneBox is far from being our "cloud" offering. 3. OneBox and OneBox for Business are two separate products whose name similarity is basically a coincidence.
- BigTuna 12y agoThis post is just phenomenal with the cloud to butt extension.
- blueskin_ 12y agoI was thinking the exact same thing.
- higherpurpose 12y agoSomeone should make a word cloud out of cloud first and mobile first.
- AVTizzle 12y agoWatch as MSFT's stock jumps.
- tobinharris 12y agoTL;DR Steve Ballmer Bye. I'm outta here. People to teach. Basketball to watch. You know. I'll write postcards and stuff. Love you. SB P.S - I've got all the shares. Satya Nadella Whatever. I've also got loads of shares too. Keep your postcards. L8r amigo.
- stevenj 12y ago*Basketball to watch
- tobinharris 12y agoThanks. Corrected. The perils of being in the UK.
- eps 12y agoIt was "cricket" originally, wasn't it?
- iblaine 12y agoMore Superbowls to win, NBA championships to win and yachts that need attention.
- tobinharris 12y agoHere here. You couldn't fault that thinking.
- apparentlykid 12y ago"I continue to love discussing the company’s future. I love trying new products and sending feedback. I love reading about what is going on at the company. Count on me to keep ideas and inputs flowing." This describes Ballmer's 34 years at the company. I used to think highly (or high-er) of him but it can't be clearer to me that him being appointed CEO was the worst decision in the history of msft, leading to the lost decade. I don't think he has any idea what he was doing - listen to his recent interview on Bloomberg.
- tdicola 12y agoI'm surprised how short and to the point Satya's letter is to Steve. You would think in the 20+ years they worked together he would relate some kind of interesting or personal story. Instead it's pretty terse and reads like a termination letter. I wonder if it was really Steve's choice to step down off the board.
- rwallace 12y agoFor all I know, in the twenty plus years they worked together, they both related lots of interesting and personal stories. Obviously Microsoft's PR department decided the official announcement of change in leadership wasn't the place for those, though. Remember the thing actually being communicated here is "yes, this is all part of the plan - so there is no need to panic sell Microsoft shares".
- biot 12y agoThe level of snark and juvenile responses in this thread is amazing. Technically, all Ballmer had to write was "I resign my board position effective immediately" and Nadella could have responded with "Acknowledged". But the letters aren't meant for us. They are meant for investors who may cast doubt onto Microsoft's future with such a key member of the board stepping down. They also serve to reinforce the company's new direction of mobile and cloud. Perhaps the letters are worded awkwardly, but let's not devolve HN into a Reddit joke thread.
- raverbashing 12y ago"They are meant for investors who may cast doubt onto Microsoft's future with such a key member of the board stepping down." Yeah, because Ballmer contributed so much to Microsoft. Just look at the stock price http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=MSFT&t=my&l=on&z=l&q=l&c= http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=MSFT&t=my&l=on&z=l&q=l&c= Ballmer was the CEO from January 2000 to February 2014
- mynameisvlad 12y agoAnd that matters how? Any big decision like a board member stepping down or a CEO resigning will cause investors to be in a panic. Having a carefully drafted press release is the best way to go about the situation.
- joezydeco 12y agoHis point is that investors won't be panicking after 14 years of stock performance like this. Almost any change will be an improvement.
- dredmorbius 12y agoWe are among the audience (technologists, some investors, some mindshare influencers). And we're responding.
- rbanffy 12y ago> They are meant for investors who may cast doubt onto Microsoft's future with such a key member of the board stepping down Any investor worth his/her portfolio can easily see through this.
- paul_f 12y agoHas any other corporate CEO generated more profits during his watch than Steve Ballmer? Not sure if this true but I suspect it might be.
- kordless 12y agoDear Satya, Sorry I forgot to give you the three envelopes. Sincerely, Steve
- mturmon 12y agoDear Satya, As we discussed, this paves the way for you to use the first envelope. Best wishes, Steve
- jaoued 12y agoSo funny Cloud first, Mobile first... Henry Mintzberg would say that this is an inward focus statement telling and reminding MS employees what their focus should be. Bottom line : no many great mobile apps on MS devices...
- blueskin_ 12y agoMicrosoft is a spent force these days. Yes, they missed the opportunity to jump onto phones, but destroying their entire business and alienating all their customers is a complete overreaction. Shame though, I liked Windows before they tried to slap the UI from a mobile phone onto it.
- dserban 12y agoWhat is with this trend of e-mail correspondence between high-level people at big companies being available to the general public?