14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer had nothing but high hopes ahead of his visits in Central and Eastern Europe that were scheduled to debut in Budapest, Hungary on May 19, 2008. But a less traditional reception awaited the CEO of Microsoft in the final stage of his Hungary visit. Ballmer participated at the Windows Server 2008 executive launch event, then attended a press conference for the launch of Hungarian Employability Alliance, in an online chat, and was scheduled to finish the day with a keynote address at the Entrepreneurship Forum at Corvinus University, where it all went bad for the CEO. During what appeared to be nothing more than a regular speech, Ballmer was egged by a protester, and the otherwise anodyne event managed to make video history.
The video fragment embedded at the bottom of this article offers a far better perspective over the incident than words can describe. An unsuspecting and relaxed Steve Ballmer is interrupted during his speech by a local protester, who screamed a few demands and went on to throw eggs at Microsoft's Chief Executive Officer. Ballmer scrambled for cover behind a desk as it was clear that he found the raw egg omelette hurled at him a tad hard to swallow, and to dodge for that matter.
The egg-thrower who came armed with three projectiles apparently wanted Microsoft to return the Hungarian taxpayers dollars the company had "stolen." His aim proved to be just as inconsistent as his incoherent demand, as none of the eggs actually hit Ballmer. After the protester was removed, Microsoft's CEO resumed the keynote address joking that the incident "was a friendly disruption," but admitting that it had broken his train of thought.
Ahead of setting the first step in the CEE, Ballmer was praising the region. "Central and Eastern Europe is the world's fastest-growing region and most economists anticipate that this will be the case for the next few years, at least. Right now, it is Microsoft's fastest-growing market, as well. Today, we have 23 subsidiary offices across the region, and we employ around 2,000 people. We operate significant development, technical support and innovation centres in cities such as Bucharest, Belgrade and Prague, and we continue to invest in the region because we are seeing a lot of growth and opportunity," he stated.