Microsoft board supports Ballmer after calls for him to quit

By Tom Warren, on 27th May 11 3:45 pm with 81 Comments

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer

Microsoft’s board of directors has backed CEO Steve Ballmer, following calls for him to quit.

Earlier in the week influential hedge fund manager David Einhorn called for Steve Ballmer to step down from Microsoft. “Give someone else a chance” said Einhorn. “His continued presence is the biggest overhang on Microsoft’s stock,” he added. Einhorn is the president of Greenlight Capital and an infamous short seller. The hedge fund manager has previous held short positions on Lehman Brothers and Allied Capital, both went bankrupt during the “credit crunch” woes.

Despite Einhorn’s words, Microsoft’s board is standing by Steve Ballmer. Microsoft’s nine-person board, including Chairman and co-founder Bill Gates, supports Ballmer, a source close to the board told Reuters on Thursday. A number of other investors have not shared Einhorn’s call for Ballmer to be removed. Microsoft’s stock has suffered since Ballmer has been in charge but most analysts and investors feel it would be a hard task to find someone adequate to replace him.

Ballmer came under fire recently after both Apple and IBM overtook Microsoft in market value. The software giant is preparing for its next phase of Windows. Steven Sinofsky, the company’s Windows chief, will demonstrate an early technology preview of Windows 8 next week. The preview is expected to show Microsoft’s tablet user interface for the first time, one that the company hopes will be competitive against Apple and Google’s tablet offerings.

Anonymous

He has my support too! Go Ballmer, go!
Anonymous

He has my support too! Go Ballmer, go!
- zzz
  
  MS has some key product plans that are being executed as we speak. Let’s see how they turn out. You fire CEOs when the ship is rudderless or going in the wrong direction. I don’t feel like MS is in that mode at this time. Frankly, I think some of the charges Einhorn were flat ridiculous as I commented yesterday. Can’t believe he even had the time to announce the Mets purchase on the same day.
- StephenPeeGobs
  
  Sorry, but one guy…(who’s worth happens to be pennies compared to Steve’s) seems to be a little ignorant. He needs to take a step back, put down is iPad and re-think such ludicrous comments. Go selll some apple stock or something.
Anonymous

He has my support too! Go Ballmer, go!
http://www.Nave360.com Sebastian Gorgon

Steve Ballmer will be a great loss, just like Bill Gates. I don’t see a reason why he should step down,
- Anonymous
  
  Yeah you’re absolutely right. I has achieved awesome things with Microsoft, and I’d like to keep him up top of this company.
- Guest
  
  “I don’t see a reason why he should step down”
  
  Suggestions:
  
  1) Go to any large airport and look around. Note the number of MacBooks, iPads, iPhones, and Android phones compared to PC, Windows tablets, and Windows phones. Then remember back to when Steve took over in 2000. MS has 95% of the PC market. It was pioneering tablets and the handheld that would become Windows Mobile. It has the most money of any technology company. It has no debt. Apple was barely solvent. Google was still a startup.
  
  2) Buy a share of their stock. You’ll find out quickly enough.
- http://www.Nave360.com Sebastian Gorgon
  
  Rich people want the best, but they are just confused
- http://www.Nave360.com Sebastian Gorgon
  
  Rich people want the best, but they are just confused
- Anonymous
  
  What has this to do with Ballmer? It’s not because of Ballmer that people buy iPhones and Macbooks, is it?
- Guest
  
  Um, a lot? He’s the CEO. With leadership comes responsibility and accountability.
  
  People buy iPhones and Macbooks and now iPads because Apple has delivered products that many consumers see as more innovative and better than those from MS. If MS products are either not as innovative or good as those from Apple, or perceived that way due to MS’s lousy marketing, of course Ballmer is culpable.
- Tom
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation
  Remind me, when did Apple last innovate?
  Putting the taskbar at the top of the screen instead of the bottom doesn’t count.
- Guest
  
  What part of this did you have trouble understanding?
  
  “because Apple has delivered products that many consumers see as more innovative and better than those from MS”
- StefenPeeGobs
  
  You don’t seem to realize (mr/mrs guest -scared not to leave your name, that Windows DOMINATES the world…still…
- Guest
  
  Can’t address the message so try to shoot the messenger, huh? Yeah, he had managed to retain about 90% of the PC market even as he lost all the others. But that’s likely already dropped considerably if you include tablets as a PC and will probably decline quite rapidly now. Maybe you missed how many OEMs are now shipping or planning to ship units with Android, or ChromeOS, or what HP is doing with WebOS? No worry there though I guess. After all, it’s not like HP is their largest OEM or anything.
- Bburke33609
  
  Everyone seems to be looking at MS as being incapable of competing. If you look at the reality of the past decade, It falters when it doesn’t have to compete. Vista was a product that was trying to evolve past the windows XP stage without anyone having any idea of where to go. Hence they spent 5 years on longhorn and abandoned it. Ever since Apple and Google became generalized competition for MS across a wide range of products, all of MS’ products have become much better almost across the board. MS and everyone else is much better with all of the diversity we are seeing in the tech industry.
- http://www.rwalrond.com RWalrond
  
  Awsome response, could not have said it better.
  
  In the past the competition complained about Microsoft, now the competition has figured out if you want to beat Microsoft, Innovate! This will in turn force Microsoft to step up their game again and hopefully this time around the DOJ will stay out of it.
- http://twitter.com/jimmyfal Jimmy Fallon
  
  Tablets aren’t pc’s, they are oversized phones.
- Anonymous
  
  Not Windows tablets, though.
http://www.andrewtechhelp.com/ Andrew Tech Help

haha, That’s exactly what the Labor Party said about Kevin Rudd before they dumped him as Labor Leader & therefore Prime Minister here in Australia – “he has our full support”. Just saying
Anonymous

I’m disappointed he allowed marketing and Mirosoft’s image to degrade so much under his watch but there is so much good stuff happeningat Microsoft these days that I woudln’t want to rock the boat righ now. But sheesh hire a marketing wiz and give him/her lots of power.
- Bburke33609
  
  I honestly have to agree. Marketing is the achilles heel of microsoft. Out of everything they’ve done for Windows Phone they still have Samsung kicking their butts as far as quality advertising. They are the worst at selling their own products and they seem to get worst the more marketable the product.
  
  I really think that when someone from a financial industry firm says that something drastic needs to happen in another industry like Ballmer getting sacked, they shouldn’t be taken seriously. All the damage those jokers have done and they still seem to believe they have credibility on the level to sack the CEO of a company that makes billions in profit every year with no signs of losses in sight. That’s what blows my mind about all of the calls for Ballmer to go. They are fiscally sound. Let them keep making their billions.
- Yellow2011
  
  That’s funny… for most of the 90s people used to say “pah, Microsoft, they’re just a marketing company”
- zzz
  
  I’m sure Ballmer is aware of the marketing issues by now. In fact, their marketing chief with 22 years of MS career left just recently. Don’t know if they annouced a replacement yet.
  
  http://www.winrumors.com/microsoft-marketing-chief-mich-matthews-is-leaving-the-company/
- Guest
  
  Q: Who hired and left her in place years after it was clear she was useless?
  A: Ballmer
  
  Q: Who is still approving inconsistent advertising that with a few exceptions is generally horrible?
  A: Ballmer
  
  I’m frankly astounded at how many people here will concede MS’s abysmal marketing, or failed products, or missed opportunities in mobile and tablets - all on Ballmer’s watch – and then say “but I don’t think they need a new CEO”.
  
  The buck stops with the person in charge. Or it’s meant to.
- Guest
  
  Q: Who hired and left her in place years after it was clear she was useless?
  A: Ballmer
  
  Q: Who is still approving inconsistent advertising that with a few exceptions is generally horrible?
  A: Ballmer
  
  I’m frankly astounded at how many people here will concede MS’s abysmal marketing, or failed products, or missed opportunities in mobile and tablets - all on Ballmer’s watch – and then say “but I don’t think they need a new CEO”.
  
  The buck stops with the person in charge. Or it’s meant to.
- zzz
  
  I don’t think anyone is saying he didn’t make any mistakes. The thing is Ballmer and Gates are the guys that led MS to its top dog status in the first 20 years. Without them, MS wouldn’t exist today. People like that are given some room. They are not your typical CEOs-by-hire. And the bottom line is, despite all the negative media coverage, is MS turning good profit and, most importantly, going in the right path with plans to execute right now? I don’t think anyone can seriously say the answer is no.
- Guest
  
  Technlogy history is littered with companies whose founders led them to greatness and then hung on too long and ended up burying their orgs. Look at long term survivors like IBM or HP. They all outgrew their founders at some point, faced a crisis, and needed new leadership blood. MS does too.
  
  The good profits are artifacts of winning past battles, most of them fought in the 90′s (Windows, Office, Windows Server). That can’t be depended on to last, and in the case of Windows it’s already showing signs of deterioration. How is 3% share in mobile and still declining post the WP7 launch, effectively 0% in tablets and two years late to market, and 13% share in US search and much less overseas (all while losing billions each quarter) on the right path? I don’t think it is. The market clearly doesn’t think it is. And most of the media doesn’t think it is. Most of MS’s competitors don’t think it is either and make frequent public comments to that effect.
- zzz
  
  I like the way you flip flop on the past result and the future outlook to suit your argument. LOL. Go read Citi’s report out today. Not everyone thinks like you. Popularlists and sensationalistic bloggers, yes. But not everyone.
- Guest
  
  No flip flop. The past result is known. The future one isn’t. All we have to go on is their record and the obvious hole they’ve now dug for themselves. Are you seriously debating the magnitude of the challenge they face getting back into leadership in either mobile or tablets?
  
  I didn’t say everyone thinks like me. But I said my opinion is the majority one shared by investors and the media. The former can be verified by looking at the stock’s performance. The latter can be confirmed by taking the top 10 media headlines regarding MS on any given day.
- zzz
  
  Another article:
  
  “Microsoft: Win Tablet Can Be A Winner, Says Caris”
  
  “We believe that the company has made big strides over the past 6 months and may
  end-up launching tablet soon.”
  
  “But once Microsoft does decide to offer Windows for tablets, they have the
  advantage,”
  
  http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2011/05/27/microsoft-win-tablet-can-be-winner-says-caris/?mod=yahoobarrons
- Guest
  
  A lot of people said the same thing about WP7. It was going to turn things around for MS in mobile, especially backed by a $400M campaign to promote it. What was the result?
- zzz
  
  Six months into the launch and you expect it to rival Android sales? Once again, go read some very recent reports predicting WP to be #1 or #2 in a few years and try to understand their reasoning. But I see you are a simple troll afraid of MS’s success. Good luck in coming years.
- Zzzz
  
  Yes those report was laugh at
- OMG55
  
  Single minded just like your fearless leader…..Steve Jobs. This is why Bill Gates holds 150M in Apple stock and bailed Apple out once before. Will they have to do it again when the ipod/iphone dry up????
- Guest
  
  Bill Gates never held stock in Apple and MS no longer does either.
- Zzzz
  
  If not Android, then Apple, if not Apple the RIM, if not RIM then at least Window M 6.5. zzz are u with MS marketing dept.?
- OMG55
  
  let me repeat this again, I have both an iphone 4 and a WP7. The WP7 is more robust than my iphone 4. The platform needs time to gain momentum to compete against existing platforms. Cell users don’t generally change devices until their contracts are up for renewal……Now get out of the forum (Apple)biased troller. Otherwise be truly objective
- Bburke33609
  
  Exactly and MS has done a ton of good work under Ballmer. Everyone poops all over him for the stuff he got wrong, but never attributes any success to the man. Truthfully when a company is allowed to sit at the top of an industry completely unchallenged for as long as MS did something like Vista was bound to happen eventually and the new form factors in mobile were a massive blind side for the leader in smart phones at the time but MS looks to have largely righted the most egregious of it’s problems in those areas.
  
  This whole conversation is silly because of the narrative that everything moves at the speed of light in the tech industry is a little distorting of the realities of engineering and software development. If you look at Apple’s progress in mobile, it is the culmination of a decade of evolution of OSX and iPod tech. It may seem revolutionary in context to the tech industry as a whole but within Apple itself the iPhone wasn’t this magical creation that came about without any groundwork lain by previous devices. MS is laying the same type of groundwork for the next decade of growth. Windows on ARM is effectively pushing software development to be flexible enough that MS could port windows to other architectures also and still have the vast windows software library more or less available. Ballmer said this version of windows was their biggest bet for a reason. With what is currently being shown for the future with the design evident in Windows Phone, I can’t imagine why all of this talk about changing dicks midstroke is happening. Once you throw in the momentum of Bing and xbox and Azure, anyone who says ballmer should go obviously is deluded and should really look at things realistically. The smartphone revolution is what 7 years old? Tablets are 1.5 years old. These aren’t mature markets. There is still tons of room to innovate which MS is actually doing currently with smart phones. Next week we see the Tablet interface.
  
  When some schmuck who wants a bigger return on his MS stock whines about it, Don’t get all gripy about phones and tablets as if that is the only thing that matters. This is about the stock price. These guys will always whine even if Ballmer poops a consumer mass market cold fusion generator design if it didn’t make the stock move drastically.
- OMG55
  
  I second that motion, marketing the full line and scope of MS will be great. Not just marketing Win, Office. WP7 along with its marketing strategy is the begining of the new MS.
Impartial

I think MS should have two visible heads, one for Business and one for Consumers, I would keep Ballmer and CEO and create a new position that would enable Joe Belfiore to become the visible head of everything consumer focused, not a second CEO but perhaps Head of Consumer Products or something like that! Joe is very cool and comes accross really well, I think the image of the company would benefit of a move like this.
- Anonymous
  
  I disagree. I like Belfiore, but I think Windows Phone needs his full attention. Don’t water down his image by applying it to other products. A big part of his appeal is that he is in the trenches developing Windows Phone. The further they push him into the public eye, the more rehearsed and scripted his presentations feel. I say keep him grounded in the product and let the natural enthusiasm he brought to the interviews he first appeared in shine through.
http://twitter.com/s_a_r_k_i_s sarkis chamelian

Put it this way, we are telling the Greats to go, becuase of what, another company has over taken in market value….please. Dont these people know that the whole computer boom was becuase of these people……all becuase one person isnt happy about making BILLIONS he decides to say we need to replace him? come one, be realistic here.

Anyway, I just Hope Windows 8 Tablet edition BLOWS the F**K out of anything we have seen ! Office 15 looks great !!! love the leak, hopefully get to see Windows 8 ……come on microsoft !
Anonymous

“Microsoft’s stock has suffered since Ballmer has been in charge” and yet they continue posting record profits.
- Anonymous
  
  True, I wouldn’t base CEO perfomance on stocks
- Guest
  
  How about total revenue? Total profit? Growth rate? Consumer statisfaction %? Corporate reputation ranking?
  
  Apple leads in all of those now.
- Bburke33609
  
  So because Apple is doing incredibly well also they should sack Ballmer? Yeah that makes sense. Every tech company should get rid of their CEO because of Apple’s success.
- Guest
  
  MS competes head to head against Apple in all of the latter’s core product areas, In every one of them Apple has either won decisively (music, mobile, tablets) or consistently gained share (Macs).
  
  So, yes. The same way you’d sack an NHL coach if he missed the playoffs for a decade and lost every single game to what was originally the team with the worst roster and budget in the league, but went on to become the perenial Stanley Cup champions.
- http://www.rwalrond.com RWalrond
  
  So if Microsoft beats Apple in any of those categories, then Apple should Can Steve Jobs? Come on now lets use some common sense.
  
  Unlike Hockey, this isn’t a game! Both Apple and Microsoft are doing well and as a consumer I want to see them BOTH continue to do well. So long as Microsoft keeps bringing in those record profits they will continue to innovate and try to one up what everone else is doing. This is great for us.
  
  I only wish I had a company that failed twice as bad as Microsoft is “failing” cause if I did I’d be sitting on some beach right now instead of reading such foolish comments.
- OMG55
  
  Do you remember when MS saved apple from going bankrupt? MS made a 150M investment in Apple in ’87 or ’90. Bill Gates is just not on Apple’s decision making board. So in short if Apple makes money, MS get some too, just like on the Android platform for pattents ($5 per device right now but in courts to raise the to $7.50 – $12.00 per device). So I will say again please let Apple & Google profit, because when they do, MS profits as well…..Do some research. Oh yeah, Zune is much better than itunes. MS just doesn’t do enough marketing of all of their products. I have both an iphone 4 and a WP7 and the WP7 is much more robust; it’s only lacking in the amount of apps available.
- Guest
  
  MS sold their Apple investment long ago. Look it up.
- http://www.facebook.com/abe.kennedy Abe Kennedy
  
  Sorry
  but am I the only one who believe Apple and MS are not really that big of competitors?
  Apple is a hardware company that offers software alongside its products… MS
  is a software company that offers a small margin of hardware that does compete
  with Apple but not to the point that matters.
  
  Apple is
  a consumer company, MS is an OEM company. If anything Google is a bigger competitor
  of MS and Apple then anything.
  
  Never
  the less it will always be Apple vs. MS and sorry but MS OWNS 90% of the world
  and the US government when it comes to software so while Apple may post
  impresses stock numbers only 1 of them it, in theory, is immune to defeat right now.
  
  I am not a “lover” of either company honestly. I own a MBP and an Alienware laptop while owning all but the current iPhone and 1 WP7 so I really jump around but both companies offer different products that I can see some competition but in the end I have to look at the fact that while I do own Apple products they also have MS stuff on them. IE, Office on my MBP, Windows 7 on my MBP, Bing on my iPad, etc… and then I look at my “PC” and notice the only thing I have on it is iTunes… and not because I want it but because I have to have it in order to use a few Apple products..
- Justfortherecord
  
  Why are they’re apple trolls in MS Country? hmmm?
  
  The point is this guy from green light capital wants to pump his stock holdings of MSFT. Tom your wrong… The fact is if MSFT is still posting record profit despite its stock price doesnt mean much. Most people who trade on the market pull money from stock valuations to fuel growth. Look at LinkedIn they cant remain solvent for too much longer that is why they are going to IPO to raise capital. MSFT doesn’t need to.
  
  Also any good company worth its salt has their own investment portfolio. Also MSFT integration other technologies is rampant. APPL and MSFT have many joint agreements to build interoperable technology and services.
  
  So MSFT isnt necessarily wining on the Hype-r-meter…. MSFT is still laughing all the way to the bank…
  
  Can we get some real journalism Tom? c’mon step up your game or pack it up and go home.
  
  “Sensationalism is more common then good journalism, and the two are no the same” – JB(me)
- OMG55
  
  Do you remember when MS saved apple from going bankrupt? MS made a 150M investment in Apple in ’87 or ’90. Bill Gates is just not on Apple’s decision making board. So in short if Apple makes money, MS get some too, just like on the Android platform for pattents ($5 per device right now but in courts to raise the to $7.50 – $12.00 per device). So I will say again please let Apple & Google profit, because when they do, MS profits as well…..Do some research.
- http://www.winrumors.com Tom W
  
  Record profits doesn’t mean that their stock is doing well though. A number of investors want the dividend increased and their stock has flatlined for years, that’s not a good return for your investment regardless of the company’s profit margins.
- Bburke33609
  
  But it makes you question the valuation of the stock itself if a long term history of record profits creates marginal returns.
  
  Really think about it. If apple or google continues to have record profitability will they also have no growth in their stock valuation? The stock market is ruled by irrational ways of judging the inherent value of what the stock represents. That is why MS’ stock has remained flat. If MS can create excitement about a wide range of products and change the general malaise the media currently has regarding them, then the stock will move even if there is lowered revenue.
- http://www.winrumors.com Tom W
  
  Record profits doesn’t mean that their stock is doing well though. A number of investors want the dividend increased and their stock has flatlined for years, that’s not a good return for your investment regardless of the company’s profit margins.
Mark

No surprise the board would back Ballmer. They’ve done that for years as he has lost market after market. They need both a new CEO and a new board. At least the board was kind enough to make that clear, once and for all.
- Anonymous
  
  How did they lose “market after market” ?
- Anonymous
  
  How did they lose “market after market” ?
- Mark
  
  Incompetence mostly.
- Anonymous
  
  I mean, WHICH markets did they lose? I can’t think of any
- Bburke33609
  
  He’s referring to the phones and tablets. When someone says that they don’t have much knowledge of MS actual performance in any markets.
- Mark
  
  That’s because you’re hoping all the losses are temporary and somehow music, mobile, tablets, search, ERP, infrastructure as a service, browsers, etc., will all turn around. Hope isn’t much of a strategy.
- Bburke33609
  
  IE still has the most market share by a very wide margin.
  
  Infrastructure as a service = Azure which is turning a good profit and quite alot of people consider it to be the best cloud out there.
  
  Music = Zune which has been gaining marketshare monthly since it was added to the xbox dashboard.
  
  Search = Constantly gaining ground and getting alliances like Baidu, Yahoo, ford, and Blackberry. They’ve never had a commanding lead here so gaining on google definitely doesn’t imply losing even if they spend money to gain that ground
  
  All this stuff is completely dismissed because it’s MS but they have been in stealth mode for a while because that is how they succeed since everyone learned to hate MS in the 90s. I’m personally glad MS is no longer the only tech behemoth so that everyone can watch Apple or Google become the moral equivalent to MS in the 90s and maybe then there will be some sense of catharsis. or probably not.
- Mark
  
  IE is now below 50% market share worldwide and in several countries, including most of Europe, is the #2 browser behind FF. Chrome is now growing much faster. IE9 hasn’t stopped the slide.
  
  Azure is really platform as a service, not infrastructure as a service. The leader in infrastructure as a service is Amazon, by a wide margin. Let me repeat that for emphasis. An online book seller beat MS to be the leading cloud infrastructure player. Nothing is known about Azure’s profitability. It’s unlikely to be profitable, certainly not lifetime to date. Might become the leader in platform as a service. Time will tell.
  
  Zune failed in the market. It never got above 10% share and the device is dead. The software may do better now that it’s in WP7 and on Xbox. They still lost rounds one and two definitively. And as software, it’s free. So no profit there versus billions for iPod.
  
  Search- constantly losing money too. $8B so far and more every quarter. No share gains in Europe, only in North America. Even there, now less than half where they were five years ago when they doubled down. Gates listed the opportunity in his internet tidal wave memo in the late 90′s. They should have dominated. Instead, they missed it completely and are now playing catch up.
Anonymous

i dont see why ballmer should go. yeah, stuff sometimes doesn’t go right in every industry, like when you see alot of videogames annunced and then you see “cancelled”, or car designs, and stuff. in the end alot of stuff has been done with him as CEO.
also even he is the CEO, thats why there are presidents of divisions and such. and all the people working in each division, like joe belfiore! and amazing guy with windows phone. ballmer without a guy like that, would be really for windows phone stuff. or well a guy like Sinofsky.

so right now Ballmer/microsoft without that people, would be nothing. and MS with Ballmer has done alot of stuff for microsoft before in these past years, and ballmer did alot of stuff for MS before being CEO.

anyway the only person that could replace him is Bill Gates and i dont see that happening
http://twitter.com/mcakins McAkins Online

Nobody should take a stock-broker seriously, all they care about is the dollar sign in their eyes.
http://techvirtuoso.com Michael Stanclift

Microsoft just isn’t sexy. Never has been, probably never will be. Apple is trendy sexy, Google is nerdy sexy. A new CEO isn’t going to change that.
- yellow2011
  
  I think that’s right… the tech elite have never really been Microsoft’s target customers. The other 5.999bn on the planet are though.
- Brent
  
  MS used to be very trendy and sexy. Some people slept overnight in front of stores to get a copy of W95. At that time, Apple wasn’t trendy or sexy at all. They were road kill.
  
  There are no limits to what the right CEO can accomplish.
Brent

A “source close to the board” isn’t necessarily the board. Just sayin…
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Z6W56L5FCCEDHNOJT4NXML23R4 Isaac Barrett

If the article written two years ago, I might have agreed with it, but I’m pretty impressed by the direction and unification that we’re seeing with Microsoft and their products. Windows 7 is the best operating system in existence and Windows 8 looks so promising that I think it will make Windows 7 look like Vista.
http://adamhaider.com Adam Haider

I always go back to what Paul Thurrott stated awhile back. Microsoft should split up it’s sectors in order to remove some of the overbearing hierarchy within the company. As the main reason Microsoft has become stagnant over the years is because not enough innovation and creativity is allowed to flourish; unlike Google, Facebook, Apple and other companies that actually promote this freedom. If Balmer were to do this then we would see products coming to reality from Microsoft Research and the other projects much more rapidly. Execution for Microsoft is always in “about a year” rather than weeks or months, this has to change.
http://twitter.com/peterpulmonary1 peter terry

hey einhorn,

Hab SoSlI’ Quch!

peter
http://twitter.com/RenzoDev Renzo

Who cares about rich people trying to get richer.

I just like to code and Microsoft provides those like me a first-class experience through and through and for that I am thankful.
GP432

What does a board do just before firing a CEO… Pledge their support.
Ben

Would the macbooks and imac be as popular if they could’t run Windows?

May be MS should stop trying to protect Windows. They could easy own the competition by releasing all their apps and dev tools for all platforms.
Guest

Microsoft owned the Smartphone market with Windows Mobile 2003 and then (under Balmer’s watch) completed hosed the development of its replacement opening the door for iPhone and Andriod. Now they are playing catchup in the mobile arena when they used to be the leader. Windows Phone 7 is a very nice product but not sure it will ever catch iPhone or Andriod. The problem with Balmer running Microsoft is that he/they seem to miss the boat too often in the consumer space and are usually playing reactive catchup instead of innovating and defining the consumer space.
http://josedmorales.net Josè Daniel

I’d love to see Mr. Belfiore get a higher rank in Microsoft .. I love his attitude, passion and involvement with the community! I dare even to say … he’d be a “interesting” CEO for Microsoft! Yet, I want to know more about him, I spotted him since WP7 early news

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Microsoft board supports Ballmer after calls for him to quit