14 DAY TRIAL // Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer were like brothers to each other, so for Microsoft watchers, seeing the latter step down as CEO and then leaving the company completely was a little surprising, especially after holding the leading position in the firm for no less than 14 years.
And now Ballmer reveals that he and Bill Gates are no longer close friends, explaining that they’ve “kinda drifted apart” after he retired from the software giant.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Ballmer reveals that they had what he called “a brotherly relationship in the good parts and the bad parts,” adding that the company’s investments in phones and tablets had a significant contribution to the breakdown between them.
“We were late in phones”
Ballmer explains that he was one of the key supporters of Microsoft focusing more on hardware, while Bill Gates and the board opposed to this idea, causing a controversy that eventually led to his departure from the company.
"There was a fundamental disagreement about how important it was to be in the hardware business. I had pushed Surface. The board had been a little - little reluctant in supporting it. And then things came to a climax around what to do about the phone business," Ballmer explained.
"Towards the end, that was a bit more difficult than not, particularly with the strategic direction change and you know, the stock price isn't going anywhere, so the rest of the board felt pressure - despite the fact that profits were going up - so I think you had kind of a combustible situation."
Ballmer says that despite the opposition of his longtime friend and the board, his only regret is not pushing Microsoft closer to the hardware business sooner, especially in tablets where the Surface lineup is already proving to be particularly successful.
As far as phones are concerned, Ballmer says they were part of his long-term vision at Microsoft, but he admits that Redmond was late to the party and invested in this side to the market too late.
"I would have moved into the hardware business faster and recognized that what we had in the PC, where there was a separation of chips, systems and software, wasn't largely gonna reproduce itself in the mobile world," he said.
Microsoft’s phone platform is currently struggling, as its market share has fallen below the 1 percent threshold, with the company said to be planning the retirement of its Lumia brand and putting the focus on just one model that could be developed as part of the Surface division.