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Ballmer Stepping Down

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wraith808:
Was Ballmer Forced out over the Surface?

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9241867/Ballmer_forced_out_after_900M_Surface_RT_debacle

40hz:
Was Ballmer Forced out over the Surface?

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9241867/Ballmer_forced_out_after_900M_Surface_RT_debacle
-wraith808 (August 25, 2013, 11:17 AM)
--- End quote ---

Probably.

If he was in disagreement with the board, but went ahead anyway, and it set the company back $900 million so far - yeah, I'd think so.

To allow Ballmer to remain in the wake of that debacle would raise questions about the board shirking its fiduciary responsibilities. And that could lead to legal action by the shareholders against the board.
 :tellme:

Renegade:
^ Seems like the BoD is really on the ball there! :P

40hz:
^No worse than most the way they're set up these days.

Especially if the CEO has a big say in who gets on the board - as CEOs with major stock holdings like Ballmer usually have.

The whole issue of corporate governance is a joke these days since very few boards are sufficiently independent - or (in real terms) empowered to take action in advance of a major crisis like Windows 8 and the Surface are turning out to be.

We also don't know what Gates is doing in the background. Most people in the know have said he feels an extreme amount of loyalty towards early Microsoft employees. And Ballmer was #30 - so that should put him firmly in the "old guard."

Of course, it could also be as simple as Big Bill himself making a phone call and saying "Hey Steve, y'know what?, I really think it's time we oldsters get out of running Microsoft and start doing something else with the rest of our lives - don't you?"

Vurbal:
That's why Microsoft fell off the map in smartphones and eventually had to cobble together the first Windows Phone OS in just a few months from retread software they had lying around.
-Vurbal (August 23, 2013, 09:25 PM)
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Just a quibble, but I think I recall that Windows Phone wasn't "lying around" - it was an entire second attempt at a phone OS built from scratch. Cobbled together to be sure, but just a different version of the MS demise in phones - "Windows Mobile" was getting stuck and Windows Phone was desperation.

I'm no fanboy of Apple, but my iPhone *is* better than the Win Mobile 6.1 phone brick I had.


-TaoPhoenix (August 24, 2013, 01:19 AM)
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Since I don't feel like going back to find my sources for this I'll understand if everyone takes this with a huge grain of salt.

Windows Phone 7 was essentially a fusion of the Kin OS and Zune interface with some PC and Xbox related features added on top. It was an entirely new attempt only in the sense that the Sidekick software they bought along with Danger had to be rewritten around Windows CE 6 due to internal MS politics.

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