Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer to retire

[fellix_bg]

Microsoft has announced that chief executive Steve Ballmer will retire within the next 12 months, once it has found a successor.

Mr Ballmer is currently overseeing the transformation of Microsoft into a devices and services company.

He said in a statement: "There is never a perfect time for this type of transition, but now is the right time."

"We need a CEO who will be here longer term for this new direction," Mr Ballmer said.

The world's biggest software company has created a special committee to find a replacement. This committee includes Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

In pre-market trading on Wall Street, Microsoft shares surged 8%.

There had been investor criticism of Microsoft recently for not reacting fast enough to the way Apple and Google have led the way in mobile devices.

Microsoft's transformation plan, announced last month, is trying to address that.

Source

[Buckeye]

Best thing MS can do atm.

[kromosto]

Best thing MS can do atm.

if he chooses his successor then it may not

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

[Buckeye]

Maybe a reason he is retiring ?

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/32470/...edium=linkedin

[zalbard]

Yes, yes, yes! Fantastic news!

[deathman20]

if he chooses his successor then it may not

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

But there is a committee picking the successor. So its not just 1 person doing it.

[Buckeye]

Maybe they should get Ben Affleck... no wait he's Batman LOLOLOL

[chispy]

Best thing MS can do atm.

+1 , I agree 100%

[kromosto]

Maybe they should get Ben Affleck... no wait he's Batman LOLOLOL

yes batman is also a ceo this can't be coincidence :P

[El Mano]

Oh dear I thought that rumor about Ben Assleck was just trolling.
Good for MS, awful news for Batman fans.

[kuroikenshi]

the film industry pulled a windows RT on us by giving us a cheap substitute for Christian Bale....

[Iconyu]

It won't change anything, you think that all the good ideas were vetoed by Ballmer or something? There were no good ideas to start with.

[xytrius]

MS stock went up by 10% after he announced his retirement, and ironically Ballmer's stock worth increased by close to a billion. Forbes has an article that is a good read, and is peppered with interesting facts.
Bill Gates is in the selection committee to decide Ballmer's successor (let us not forget that Gates and all senior MS folk designated Ballmer as Gates' successor much before Gates' resignation).

From the Forbes article:

Microsoft MSFT +7.32% CEO Steve Ballmer made $1 billion quitting. The perennially embattled software boss said this morning he would retire within the next 12 months. At the market open, his 333.252 million shares were up 10% as investors cheered the end of the Ballmer era...

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupb...ost-1-billion/

Don't forget to check out the Ballmer's Greatest Crazy-Ass Video Moments:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupb...video-moments/

[chispy]

" Computerworld - Steve Ballmer was forced out of his CEO chair by Microsoft's board of directors, who hit the roof when the company took a $900 million write-off to account for an oversupply of the firm's struggling Surface RT tablet, an analyst argued today.

"He was definitely pushed out by the board," said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy, in an interview Friday. "They either drove him out, or put him in a situation where he felt he had to leave to save face."


More , complete story and source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/artic...ace_RT_debacle

[SoF]

Lately in Steve's house...

RETIREMENT, RETIREMENT, RETIREMENT!


About time he left...never had the right view and visions to bring microsoft / windows into the right direction...

[Mungri]

I suppose that this is how everyone else at microsoft will react now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I14b-C67EXY

[lutjens]

It's about damn time...this ass clown's departure is long overdue. Maybe in retirement he'll learn to keep his tongue in his mouth, but I doubt it.

[DeathReborn]

Ballmers biggest regret is Vista? My biggest regret (concerning OS anyway) was actually paying money for Windows 8 in hopes that the issues I hated in Beta would be fixed. Looks like they are just putting a coat of paint on the issues and hoping we won't notice. Considering who they have lined up to run Windows it's gonna get worse not better, oh how I wish Linux would mature faster.

Good riddance to the ADHD monkey named Ballmer.

[himaro]

they need someone who is not a marketing boff or a HR idiot.
They need a developer \ user to take control. marketing people make products like Games for Windows Live and Windows 8.
they should try and pinch someone from the Linux community as they actually know what they're doing with code etc.

[Nikolasz]

jub done.