14 DAY TRIAL // Steve Ballmer was undoubtedly one of the most passionate technology company CEOs in the world, so when news of him throwing a chair across the room when finding out that a key engineer was leaving for Google emerged, not too many people were surprised.
Even though the incident itself was a bit extreme, at some level it did sound like something that Ballmer would do, especially because he was a true Microsoft man by all means.
But according to a recent interview, that’s not exactly what happened, with Ballmer explaining that the whole thing was overblown and what he did was only shake the back of the chair.
“Oh, that was overblown. Somebody said [that], I think Marc Lucovsky, who was an engineer that I worked with for many years. I think the story was that I threw a chair. That’s not right. I kind of shook the back of a chair, but I never threw a chair. I said ‘Marc, come on, you should stay’ and then I kind of rattled it, ‘Come on, Marc,’ so I was just rattling the back of a chair,” Ballmer explains.
“But I didn’t pick up a chair and throw it, I’m not even sure I have the strength to do that. I think it was healthy passion,” he continues.
Lucovsky’s own side of the story
Of course, Lucovsky’s own version of the story sounds a lot more dramatic, and it’s worth giving it a read, despite the fact that Ballmer says it’s not true.
“Prior to joining Google, I set up a meeting on or about November 11, 2004 with Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer to discuss my planned departure… At some point in the conversation Mr. Ballmer said: ‘Just tell me it’s not Google.’ I told him it was Google.
At that point, Mr. Ballmer picked up a chair and threw it across the room hitting a table in his office. Mr. Ballmer then said: ‘F***ing Eric Schmidt is a f***ing p***y. I’m going to f***ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I’m going to f***ing kill Google.’”
Steve Ballmer spent no less than 34 years at Microsoft, becoming the company’s second CEO in history in 2000. He left the company in 2014 after being replaced by the current CEO Satya Nadella, and decided to focus more on basketball after purchasing the LA Clippers for $2 billion.
You can watch Ballmer’s most recent interview below, and scroll down a little bit more to see just how passionate he was while at the helm of Microsoft.
