[steve-ballmer] Forum Topics

Microsoft is just about over the three day hump that has been their timid Windows 8 release, and amid the [cries of anger](http://www.daniweb.com/hardware-and-software/microsoft-windows/windows-vista-and-windows-7-8/news/438107/windows-8-launch-three-year-user-backlash-predicted) over die-hard user, it's apparent Microsoft's move toward Windows 8 was one for the long term, not the short time.  While some jump to call …

Aside from being one of the [most hated CEOs](http://www.businessinsider.com/hated-tech-ceos-2011-12?op=1) in the world of technology, Steve Ballmer is hard at work trying to design a new world for Microsoft and the future of consumer electronics and, simultaneously, saving himself from a history of redicule. Ballmer's ambitious claim of [400 million](http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/05/ballmer-400m-windows-phone-8-windows-8-devices/) Windows …

[ATTACH=RIGHT]16218[/ATTACH]According to [URL="http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-07-21/will-microsoft-ceo-steve-ballmer-be-fired-for-low-stock-price/"]Peter Laurie on The Daily Beast[/URL], Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer may soon be out. Senior Microsoft executives have been discussing how to oust their leader. Dissatisfaction with Microsoft's stock performance has fueled the possible rebellion. Microsoft stock prices have fluctuated over the past few years, but the company …

[ATTACH=right]15786[/ATTACH]At Microsoft's [URL="http://www.digitalwpc.com/"]Worldwide Partner Conference[/URL] in Washington, D.C. this week, the digital diplodocus will announce its lumbering movement into the cloud along with an appeal for its partners to hold hands and make the leap as well. For those partners that are still a little hesitant to make the jump, …

Microsoft and Apple haven't had a great time of it recently with mobile consumers. For Microsoft, the market roundly rejected the Kin, which just about anyone who follows the cell phone market knew would happen. Meanwhile, Apple is taking it on the chin about how they are handling the iPhone …

Sometimes you look at the morning's headlines and wonder what exactly a particular CEO was thinking when they made a certain statement. Recently we've had these gems from seasoned CEOs: [LIST] [*][URL="http://www.mediaite.com/online/yahoo-ceo-carol-bartz-tells-michael-arrington-to-fk-off-video/"]Carol Bartz told Michael Arrington of Tech Crunch to f**k off.[/URL] [*][URL="http://blogs.computerworld.com/16249/steve_ballmer_admits_microsoft_is_number_five_in_the_mobile_race"]Steve Ballmer admitted his company was number 5 …

Earlier this week [URL="http://www.microsoft.com"]Microsoft[/URL] and [URL="http://www.amazon.com"]Amazon[/URL] signed a [URL="http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2010/feb10/02-22MSAmazonPR.mspx"]patent deal[/URL] covering Amazon's Linux-based Kindle and its use of Linux-based server systems. Amazon will pay Microsoft an undisclosed amount as a result of this deal. I know it's just me but what the hell is up with that? I don't have …

There has been [URL="http://www.itpro.co.uk/blogs/daveyw/2009/01/13/no-crisis-in-it-security-budgets/"]much speculation[/URL] regarding job losses at Microsoft of late, and now the truth is out. Thankfully the scale of the damage is not as great as at first feared, and nowhere near the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3757.html"]15,000 job losses[/URL] talked about recently. It would seem that 1400 jobs are to …

[ATTACH]12206[/ATTACH] [I]I've lived long enough to have learned The closer you get to the fire the more you get burned But that won't happen to us 'Cause it's always been a matter of trust ~Billy Joel, Matter of Trust[/I] When word got out last week about the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/story229934.html"]Sidekick data loss …

In a strange part of what was otherwise and interesting and insightful [URL="http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/24/microsoft-ballmer-interview-exclusive-techcrunch-bing-mobile-azur/"]interview with TechCrunch[/URL] this week, [URL="http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/exec/steve/"]Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer[/URL] went out of his way to avoid naming Google, instead referring to them repeatedly as "the incumbent." This seemed to be a deliberate strategy and left me shaking my …

All the glass clicking and cheers of late surrounding the apparent conversion of [URL="http://www.microsoft.com"]Microsoft[/URL] to the open source [URL="http://www.codeplex.com"]fold[/URL] needs to stop. We need the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_war"]Cold War[/URL]. We need [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism"]Communism[/URL]. And, yes, we need the OS Wars. Like any war, the OS Wars stimulate creativity, spark religious battles and divide …

You have to give Steve Ballmer and Microsoft credit. After years of sitting on the sidelines playing defense and catch-up, this year they have definitely been on offense. Whether it's the ad wars, releasing Bing, the deal with Yahoo!, the retail strategy or its latest move, a deal with Nokia …

Over the years there has been plenty of [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/20745/53/"]speculation regarding the sanity[/URL] of Steve 'Monkey Dancing' Ballmer, the Microsoft CEO. But what is it with Microsoft and this obsession to pursue the search supremacy dream at any cost? Sure, I know [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3327.html"]Ballmer has sworn to kill Google[/URL] before but the …

So much for a “glimmer of hope”. Wall Street is looking more skeptically at claims from Washington that the economy is getting better. The stock market is down about 45 points in late morning trading, after more layoffs were announced by U.S. companies (Yahoo (YHOO) being one of them – …

Microsoft has been active lately, showing some signs of spunk. I reported last week that Steve Ballmer was going straight after Apple at the McGraw Hill Summit (as I wrote in [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4155.html"]Ballmer Wastes No Words Going After Apple[/URL]). This week we see the release of an [URL="http://byronmiller.typepad.com/byronmiller/2009/03/new-microsoft-ad-goes-after-high-price-of-apple.html"]ad campaign comparing Apple …

The market’s four-day rally, where it has recouped 14% of its losses – the biggest pickup in decades – is about to get a legitimate curveball this week with a new report out from the UK-based Telegraph that Microsoft is in serious discussions to buy Yahoo. The proposed $20 billion …

Steve Ballmer called Linux a "[URL="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06/02/ballmer_linux_is_a_cancer/"]Cancer[/URL]" in the past, ranted about [URL="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/111706-ballmer-linux-users-owe.html"]patent infringement[/URL], [URL="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9005171&source=NLT_AM&nlid=1"]accused[/URL] Linux programmers of ripping-off intellectual property, and [URL="http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/steve/2006/11-02NovellInterop.mspx"]penned[/URL] a deal between rival Novell to sell Linux. Wait, that last one doesn't fit with the others. Did you ever notice how someone is often mean or harsh …

All last week, Microsoft was trying desperately to shift the spotlight from Vista, the OS that has become a major liability for the software giant. To that end, Microsoft made a flurry of announcements including Azure, the newly announced cloud platform, the Windows 7 Alpha and a preliminary view of …

[I]You can do one of two things; just shut up, which is something I don't find easy, or learn an awful lot very fast which is what I tried to do. ~Jane Fonda [/I] Steve Ballmer doesn't seem to have learned Jane Fonda's big life lesson. In fact, dude doesn't …

Steve Ballmer should limit his worries to Microsoft and his advice to his employees. Last week the Microsoft CEO reportedly had the audacity to suggest that Apple "become more like Microsoft," and loosen the bonds between Apple hardware and software. Is he really that clueless? Surely he's aware that it's …

Here’s a footnote for the current chapter of the Microsoft-Yahoo acquisition saga. Microsoft this week issued a [URL=http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/jul08/07-14statement.mspx]statement[/URL] to “set the record straight” about [URL=http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/press/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=321697]Yahoo’s July 12 rejection[/URL] of the latest acquisition offer from Redmond. Rather than trying to paraphrase, here’s Microsoft in its own words, including references to “activist …

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is not only an apish buffoon, but he also apparently lacks a backbone. It was revealed today in a [URL=http://in.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idINWNAS033120080707]letter to Yahoo shareholders[/URL] written by “activist investor” Carl Icahn that Ballmer expressed fears that the current Yahoo board—hostile to a takeover by Microsoft—could put the huge …

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning (and thousands of others since then) in a [URL=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121496732802022117.html] front-page story[/URL] that Microsoft is seeking new channels of opportunity for acquiring the search business of Yahoo. Redmond has reportedly been in talks with Time Warner and WSJ parent company News Corp., cooking up …

Bill Gates opened [URL= http://www.microsoft.com/events/TechEd2008/default.mspx] Tech-Ed 2008 Developers[/URL], its annual developers conference in Orlando, Fla., today by saying good-bye to a group the Microsoft founder said has been the company’s most important. “The success of Microsoft really is due to our relationship with developers,” he said in his keynote this …

Even though the guy missed, Steve Ballmer might still end up with egg on his face. If the Microsoft CEO fails again to acquire Yahoo, he might do well to open his own diner since he always seems to have a ready supply of eggs. This time they came his …

Is the Yahoo deal done yet? The stock market thinks so, slicing Yahoo’s financial value by 15% in the last two trading sessions. If the deal were still alive, then the stock would be moving the other way around. Yahoo’s chief Jerry Yang says the $37-per-share demand wasn’t etched in …

Okay, let the finger-pointing begin. Should Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer take the heat for the proposed Microsoft-Yahoo merger falling apart? After all, didn't he say that Microsoft wouldn't raise its $45.7 billion bid for Yahoo, then weeks later, say he'd raise the bid, from $31 per share to $33 per …

I’ve never liked Steve Ballmer very much as president of Microsoft. I don’t know the man personally, of course, and I could never quite put my finger on my reasons for disliking him. Until today, that is, when I read an [URL= http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hlWMAaojPTn9VWib6NSyXZ5A3ntQD90F02SO0]Associated Press story[/URL] that included allegations that the …

Despite insisting that its proposed acquisition of Yahoo! "made sense for Microsoft, Yahoo! and the market as a whole" Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, has admitted defeat and withdrawn its proposal to purchase the Yahoo! business. "Yahoo! has not moved toward accepting our offer. After careful consideration, we believe the economics …