14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft’s outgoing CEO Steve Ballmer is criticized by many, including here not only users, analysts and experts from all over the world, but also those more involved in the company’s business, including a bunch of shareholders.
Basically, Ballmer has been pushed to the wall for several years, mostly because the board of directors wasn’t quite pleased with the new direction of the company.
Windows 8 and the Surface tablet were the two products which confirmed that Microsoft needs a new CEO, people familiar with the matter explained, with Ballmer himself admitting recently that the company indeed was in for a change.
And still, as the latest annual shareholder meeting where Ballmer took part as a Microsoft CEO, he quickly responded to criticism by pointing to the company’s stock price.
Ballmer says that Microsoft’s stock jumped 60 percent with him at the helm of the company, which means that he actually laid the foundation for long-term profitability.
“Our stock price is 60 percent, maybe, of what it was when I took over as CEO. Profits are three times what they were when I took over as CEO. Now, I don’t know how to answer your question. But what I do know is, if we continue to make the investments that lead to valuable products that people will pay for in a way that generates profit, the stock price responds to that,” he said,
According to GeekWire, this means that Microsoft’s income in 1999, the year before Ballmer took over from Gates, was $7.8 billion (€5.7 billion), while in 2013, the company reported $21.8 billion (€16.1 billion).
As far as Ballmer’s successor goes, rumor has it that Microsoft is getting ready for an announcement by Christmas. Ford boss Alan Mulally, former Nokia boss Stephen Elop and internal Kevin Turner, Tony Bates, and Satya Nadella are in the race for the vacant seat.