Nah, this all has to do with ValueAct Capital, which is known for vulture investment. http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/02/11/microsoft-new-ceo-valueact/

Nah, this all has to do with ValueAct Capital, which is known for vulture investment. http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/02/11/microsoft-new-ceo-valueact/5402897/ http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/02/11/microsoft-new-... http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/19/net-us-microsoft-valueact-idUSBRE96I14920130719 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/19/net-us-microsoft-v... http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/11/microsoft-appoints-valueact-capitals-mason-morfit-to-its-board/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/11/microsoft-appoints-valueact... http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2013/09/03/valueact-hedge-funds-huge-microsoft-victory/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2013/09/03/valueact-... ValueAct is known for coming in, increasing dividends, then dumping and selling parts of the company and soaking in the profits - then leaving to work on another firm. The Ballmer 'retirement', after repeated announcements that he wouldn't retire, have everything to do with the stake that VAC bought in Microsoft. They are a patient bunch. If you look at what they want to do with Microsoft, they want to make it an enterprise and cloud only business. They are forcing Microsoft to move away from its OS, for example, and move its services and offerings on other platforms. VAC has a history of waiting long periods of time to gut and sell off the assets of companies. Expect them to try to sell XBox, the recently acquired Nokia, the Surface and its factories and any other such devices and the assets and infrastructure associated with them.