Five Years of Ballmer -- the Effect on Microsoft 324
An anonymous reader writes "In the five years since Bill Gates surprised the technology world by announcing he would give up his title as chief executive at Microsoft to Steve Ballmer, the company has changed significantly. Ballmer is largely credited for tripling the company's cash balance, with sales growing from less than $23 billion in 2000 to $36.8 billion last year. Critics claim that today, we see a much 'gentler' side of Microsoft and Ballmer seems to have received an "A" in Wall Street's eyes."
PR Translation... (Score:5, Funny)
Proper accounting would have reflected $18 b loss (Score:5, Informative)
Gentler?! Who's kidding who. (Score:3, Interesting)
What's the deal with Asia's Windows XP watered-down edition. With a continent that doesn't care to much about thier pirate mafias, that is sure going to move the governments away from open source.
Oh yeah, and since it didn't work your going to sue an entire continent o
Re:Gentler?! Who's kidding who. (Score:2)
ummm... I came out with something very similar recently without consciously knowing about that quote. My correspondent replied
Steve? Steve Ballmer? Is that you? What did you do with Atrax?
I only said hardware was a commodity item and software is a more flexible market.... sort of...
Re:Gentler?! Who's kidding who. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:PR Translation... (Score:2)
The goal of a PR person is take a damaging event against a company, BLOWN UP BY THE PRESS and PUBLIC, and explain to the public exactly 1) why the damaging scenario occured and 2) what they're doing to fix it. The goal ISN'T to hide the damaging event or try to make the CEO look like he didn't know what was going on.
PR has had a massive transformation in the past few years. Are their dicks in PR? Sure.
Re:PR Translation... (Score:2)
Re:PR Translation... (Score:2)
Ha!
Re:PR Translation... (Score:2)
And people in the business world ALWAYS follow codes of ethics right? Is it going to be necessary for me to prepare a laundry list of companies that have blatantly violated all kinds of ethics?
Btw, I have a friend in PR. She has worked for some well known compa
Or in Slashdot speak (Score:5, Funny)
Chairman Gates: Lord Ballmer.
CEO Ballmer: Yes Chairman?
Chairman Gates: Rise...
Emper^H^H^HChairman Gates: Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design. Your friends, up there in the Justice Department, are walking into a trap, as is your OSS community. It was *I* who allowed the users to know the location of the source code. It is quite safe from your pitiful little band. An entire legion of my best coders awaits them. Oh, I'm afraid the DRM will be quite operational when Longhorn arrives.
Five sweat-drenched words... (Score:4, Funny)
Is it time to shout? (Score:4, Funny)
(Anyone still have that video?)
Re:Is it time to shout? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Is it time to shout? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Is it time to shout? (Score:3, Informative)
Hell, yes! [ntk.net]
Re:Is it time to shout? (Score:2)
Same soundtrack just using domokon
I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:2)
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:2)
...on the other hand, Nintendo had the Zelda rap ad on TV.
I move to eradicate all knowledge and information from the 80s.
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:2)
Ok, now please tell me this was like some stupid thing. This wasn't ever aired was it? Also, the price seems kinda cheap. 99$ for a computer, back then? I have seen worse computers then that going for way more (10K)...
scary...
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:2)
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:2)
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:5, Insightful)
When was the last time they had a major product rollout?
Most of their software is so well known that they do not need to advertise. If you buy a computer, you get Windows, if you want word processor/spreadsheets etc., you buy Office. They are not a convicted monopoly for nothing.
Wait until Longhorn rolls out, then you'll see the major advertising campaign. As was the case with the X-box.
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:2)
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:4, Interesting)
Everyone thinks that they're a monopoly. Isn't that the best advertising?
You'd think that they could innovate with their $65 billion in cash. Instead, we get a grand total of - not one, not two - but THREE color schemes for Windows XP. It is arrogance like this that will eventually displace Microsoft. Not that color schemes matter, but the company hasn't come up with anything original in a long time. This is just a good example.
And they spend billions on R&D every year. It is like there is some law that prevents them from coming up with something both useful and non-evil. I have about a hundred ideas that they could use right now.
How long does R&D take? (Score:3, Interesting)
And they spend billions on R&D every year. It is like there is some law that prevents them from coming up with something both useful and non-evil. I
Re:How long does R&D take? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:How long does R&D take? (Score:3, Informative)
Not that hard...research.microsoft.com [microsoft.com], maybe? Here, some more useful [microsoft.com] information [microsoft.com].
Re:How long does R&D take? (Score:2)
I have been using this since 2002, and yearly I can say the versions get better and better. Not to mention this thing is virtually bug free.
It's really unfortunate that M$ can't engineer all their products at this level.
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:2)
don't you think that, perhaps, their business model no longer depends on "coming up with anything original"?
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:2)
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:3, Interesting)
But the ones that do are the ones that make the big bucks. Look at DigiCypher. The first company that implemented a practical digital compression scheme for video files. Or IBM for the PC (as opposed to mainframes). The japanese company we just had that came up with a Blue LED. Nintendo came up with the Play Station, but sold it to sony because the load times were too long for them when compared to the Cartridges. They waited till the Cube to do disks. Also, Nintendo for
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:2)
Huh?
I thought the SNES add-on device was a joint effort between Nintendo and Sony? In that light, I would have thought Sony would have had a little more to do with it than Nintendo "selling" it to Sony?
Anyways, I do recall that the DSP for sound in the SNES was Sony's own, as well....
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:2)
Yeah, but wait till you see Longhorn!
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:3, Insightful)
Sure, if you ignore everything and just use something irrelevant as an example. Ever since Visual Studio 6 from 1999 the developer products seemed stuc
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:2)
The command line compilers are now a free download
Explain exactly how giving away a compiler for free is innovation.
That just proved you're a mouse clicking monkey instead of someone who really uses software.
Or someone who isn't a programmer? The mouse clicking monkeys make up most of Microsoft's market.
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:2)
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:2)
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:2)
Pick up any trade magazine and 99% of the time, the ad on the inside front cover is a Microsoft ad.
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:2, Interesting)
Why?
Because aside from New England, the rest of the world forgot about Moxie during WWII, when the decision was made on the corporate level to use their budget on sugar (a crucial soda ingredient) instead of advertising. The taste of Moxie didn't change during WWII, but since Coca-Cola decided instead to use a substitute, but leave their advertising budget intact, the worl
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:2)
Are you talking about High Fructose Corn Syrup [coca-cola.com], by any chance?
or for a more balanced view than Coca-Cola's, there's always Cecil [straightdope.com], plus a bunchload of other links [google.com]
Re:I notice they don't advertise as much (Score:2)
Anyway, as for the HFCS thing, Greg Critser's 'Fatland' and Eric Schlosser's 'Fast Food Nation' are recommended reading, as is Felicity Lawrence's 'Not on the label', a more UK-focussed diatribe against the food industry.
For geeks, I particularly recommend checking out the sections on how chickens and potatoes are mechanic
Monkey Boy (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Monkey Boy (Score:3, Insightful)
No wonder (Score:3, Funny)
Microsoft? Gentle? (Score:2, Informative)
A confession (Score:5, Interesting)
It was shortly after that I decided to switch to Macintosh for my primary platform. Obviously I still have a PC but I only use that for games now.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:A confession (Score:2, Interesting)
As a software engineer with over 20 years of MS development experience, I always preferred Borland's tools over Microsofts's.
MS had what I considered to be great compilers with their C versions 6.0 and 7.0 and and nice assembler with MASM 5 and 6 (all text based). And the initial version of VB that generated Windows code was revolutionary. But they really dropped the ball after that. MFC was a fiasco from the start: thin OO wrappers around the Windows API. Borland was good from the get-g
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Typical Mac User (Score:2)
That same idiot is also in part in charge of what happens to your Macintosh PC's too, just FYI.
Re:A confession (Score:2)
Anywho, Ballmer is not some slack-jawed idiot, as many like to demonize him. Not surprisingly, he is a killer salesman and communicator. I've heard him talk a couple of times at relatively small conferences and was very impressed by his vision, intelligence, and oratory skills.
Re:A confession (Score:2)
Also remember that the more people with Macs, the bigger incentive to produce games for the platform. If the Mac had even 50% market share we would see a lot of games. Go buy one then worry about games later.
Re:A confession (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't honestly imagine that he really has that much of an influence over what happens to Windows on a software level.
FTA; Gates created a new position for himself entitled "Chief Software Architect", so you've most likely hit the nail on the head. It seems like Gates now focuses on what happens on the software level, leaving all the other things like antitrust lawsuits to Ballmer. That's also probably why Microsoft has been patenting so many frivolous things lately. He seems to have a knack for the legalese side of things, and rather than coming up with exclusionary contracts for business dealings, he is now working on controlling intellectual property.
Gentle? GENTLE? (Score:2)
I wouldn't say Ballmer is "gentle". More like, uhm... big, loud, incoherent and jumps up and down a lot?
Re:Gentle? GENTLE? (Score:2)
They may seem rather uncouth at the moment, but thinking back definitely reveals that this is their 'gentler' side, even if it is not particularly gentle.
Yeah, gentle like hell (Score:2)
I think they mean gentle as in "He drugged the girl and gently violated her" rather than "He beat the girl sensless with a baseball bat before having his way with her".
Thanks, but no thanks.
Ballmer, FUD, and patents... (Score:5, Interesting)
Microsoft's growth has stagnated (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Microsoft's growth has stagnated (Score:2)
Re:Microsoft's growth has stagnated (Score:2)
Re:Microsoft's growth has stagnated (Score:2)
The Nasdaq Computer Index hit a peak around 1/1/00 and has subsequently lost two-thirds of its value. (chart [yahoo.com])
Microsoft hit a peak around 1/1/00 and has subsequently lost half its value. (chart [yahoo.com])
If you take losses in a recession, but you take smaller losses than everyone else, you are still outperforming the market.
-Graham
Re:Microsoft's growth has stagnated (Score:2)
Yeah, but if you look at this chart [yahoo.com] since the recovery, it is clear the FOSS sector is recovering from the recesson, the proprietary software sector is not. Translation: Microsoft cant compete.
Re:Microsoft's growth has stagnated (Score:3, Informative)
Why I claim MS is simply treading water, howev
ah yes (Score:2)
Wrong side of the stick (Score:2)
Better that than being known as litigitous, we-bulldoze-over-everyone-in-our-way bastards. Oh wait...
Re:Wrong side of the stick (Score:2)
Microsoft does not have a reputation for being litigious, and with good reason. They almost always try to avoid using the courts. Instead, they just buy out and/or destroy their rivals in a more free-form forum. Call them evil and vile all you want, but they are not yet litigious.
Balmer is insane! (Score:3, Funny)
If Balmer rocks, then why doesn't the stock? (Score:5, Insightful)
Now in the past 5 years of Balmer the stock of Microsoft has dropped maybe 50% or so in value.
Now of course since 5 years ago we had the
I figure it has to do with no new OSes for people to buy and MS's inability to profitable merge into other tech markets.
Of course if you invest 10 years ago, then you would of rocked the house.
But if you invested 5 years ago you would of lost almost half of your investment and if you invested your money in them anytime between now and then you would of been better off keeping your money in a savings account.
Hell you would have at least had some profit if you invested in Apple...
hmm....
You know you can go for a very long time in the stock market without rising or falling much at all. Could it be that when you have 95% of hte market your prospects for growth don't seem to hot to investors?
So 5 years of mediocre performance. What will be the next 5 years? Even them returning a large part of their cash reserves to their investors had little to no effect on their stock... Unless it prevented it from falling further.
It seems to me like nobody in Walstreet gives a shit about Balmer, but PC and financial magazines sure love that ad revenue!!!
look fer yerself. [yahoo.com]
Re:If Balmer rocks, then why doesn't the stock? (Score:3, Insightful)
Now in the past 5 years of Balmer the stock of Microsoft has dropped maybe 50% or so in value....I figure it has to do with no new OSes for people to buy and MS's inability to profitable merge into other tech markets.
It's not that Microsoft is doing badly; it's just that it's "hi tech" stock valuation has finally given way to a more normal business evaluation. Instead of trading at 70 times earnings, it's now trading at a more reasonable 35 times earnin
Re:If Balmer rocks, then why doesn't the stock? (Score:2)
SOME profit? That's a major understatement. Try 200% profit if you invested at ~$23 like I did. Of course, I only purchased 20 shares, but a profit's still a profit
Re:If Balmer rocks, then why doesn't the stock? (Score:2)
MSFT Dividend FAQ [microsoft.com]
Re:If Balmer rocks, then why doesn't the stock? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:If Balmer rocks, then why doesn't the stock? (Score:2)
i wonder for how long (Score:4, Insightful)
their main revenues are form selling the OS and Office suites, right? well, he was still in the luxury position of building on a monopoly. i'm pretty sure it won't stay like this as competition gets more stiff.
and yeah, OSS and/or Free software are a big competitor in the fields where MS wants to make money in the future (embedded space, servers, for example).
A from wall street, F from developers. (Score:4, Insightful)
It is precisely because of Ballmers orientation toward marketing and finance that MS's real potential is WEAKER than it was in 2000. For every temporary balance sheet win he has made, there has been permanent 'hearts and minds' damage.
Communication is the issue; MS no longer listens to clients at the tech level. Up until a few years ago I rated MS very high in terms of listening to the marketplace and creating technology to match -- in fact, where governmental bodies and cross-industry standards groups constantly failed, and giant companies simply didn't give a good gosh damn, MS habitually actually listened to people who knew technology and produced what the world needed. This might have been more striking in my area than in some others, but it was certainly a general rule.
Fast forward to the present day. The world asks MS , "What is your
So financially, I agree that Ballmer has really done a lot. But putting the emphasis on extracting money from clients, rather than delivering benefits to clients, can only work for so long
Re:A from wall street, F from developers. (Score:5, Interesting)
More importantly, is the feedback you can directly provide to MS devs- most of the key people blog a lot. Lots of commentators have influenced decisions made by MS in the past 5 years.
The parent comment is just irrational blather.
Re:A from wall street, F from developers. (Score:2)
As the old saying goes, when you stop pursuing your customers and start pursuing your customers' money, eventually you wind up with neither.
Re: Developers like .NET (Score:3, Insightful)
However, need I mention Channel 9 [msdn.com], which is run by 5 Microsoft employees. They interview a lot of people within Microsoft and you really get a feel for the stuff they deal with. There is the *free* ISV Buddy Program, a Microsoft employee assign
an "A" (Score:3, Insightful)
Interesting (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Interesting (Score:2)
Value compared to what?
The Euro? 21.5%
13 Jan 2000: Euro 22.3 bn*
13 Jan 2005: Euro 27.1 bn
The Yen? 62.5%
13 Jan 2000: Yen 2.4 trn
13 Jan 2005: Yen 3.9 trn
British Pound? 36.7%
13 Jan 2000: GBP 13.9 bn
13 Jan 2005: GBP 19 bn
Australian Dollar? 34.4%
13 Jan 2000: AUD 34.9 bn
13 Jan 2005: AUD 46.9 bn
The Chinese Yuan? 56.7%
13 Jan 2000: CNY 190.4 bn
13 Jan 2005: CNY 298.3 bn
That's an average overall 49.8% increase between these currencies (which is about the same as the dollar rise). The lowest was the E
Re:Interesting (Score:2)
"Gentler"? (Score:2)
*sob* ...oh, the humanity! Well, if James Gandolfini won't come back for another season, now they know who to cast.
And as for the razor-sharp journalists at ZDNet...just as gardeners itch to plant seeds, the pandering press likes
An "A"? (Score:3)
And yet, where is the stock price in comparison to five years ago? Sure the bubble broke, but MS is sitting at less than half of the price it was back when he took over. How is this an "A"?
The man is OK (Score:3, Insightful)
Ofcourse he is out there to make money and to sell Windows.
He would say anything to make sure his biz stays in biz, just like any other CEO but besides that he is perfectly reasonable, in real live.
That man is not stupid neither evil, he sells his product in which he believes.
The only "crime" he would be guilty of is the crime of commerce.
It was easy ... for now anyway (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:It was easy ... for now anyway (Score:2)
Doesn't Really Change Anything (Score:3, Interesting)
Giant cash balance a good thing? (Score:3, Interesting)
Shouldn't this be going towards developing new products and services (whether they are internally developed or just bought lock-stock-and-barrel from outside)?
received an A ? hmmm, A- (Score:2)
The Real Story Here... (Score:2, Insightful)
Ballmer has probably done a pretty decent job considering the circumstances. I think the cash horde was originally for a potential SAP acq/merge. When that was a no go, the only battle big enough and worthy of a fight was the very one that Microsoft was hoping would go away...the web.
The real story here is the failure of Microsoft's Chief Architect to deliver a compelling vision. Longhorn, Avalon, Betting-on-Rich-Clients, Blah-Blah-Blah, No-One-Freakin-Cares!
It's telling that the big technology stories
No-class inheritance (Score:2)
Ballmer - Making Microsoft 'seem' gentle (Score:2)
Note, Ballmer hasn't changed Microsoft to be kinder or gentler, he has just fostered an image of Microsoft being this way.
Ballmer tackled Microsoft's image problems almost from day one.
We haven't seen Microsoft change. Although the message it's getting across has changed, everything is still running as normal back at Redmond.
There have been a great deal of issues concerning frustrat
Monopoly in a growing PC market = well... growth! (Score:3, Insightful)
if (no complaint)
stick to status quo
else
fix complaint
The problem is that complaints are usually symptoms of larger problems, and by tacking on simple fixes, Microsoft usually just ends up with a convoluted framework for whatever product they happen to be fixing.
Your average joe doesn't understand the potential of new technology, he is just reacting to the new-fangled features you just put in. This is why technology design by survey fails miserably. You need someone who fully understands what is at the edge of current technology, and who can creatively apply it in ways that enhance the average joe's life. This is so goddam simple, but Ballmer misses the point. I have heard through the grapevine that this is ingrained in Microsoft company culture, and no one challenges it, because the company is conservatively micro-managed from the top.
Microsoft gets away with this model because the average joe is unaware of innovative concepts while they are new, before Microsoft has copied them. But the software remains clunky, akin to cars of the old days, where you cranked the thing up by hand and put up with the smell, noise, and breakdowns - because there was still a tangible benefit. People thought this was the nature of cars back then, and accepted it because they couldn't see any better. Similar stylistic comparisons can be made between Microsoft and George Lucas, but I digress.
Microsoft hasn't re-invented itself, it has only re-hashed itself into something superficially better. Until the old guard leaves, that isn't likely to happen. This can be witnessed in the company's financials - growth continues, but is slowing in a growing market, despite a monopoly. If you want to make some dough, invest in some Apple stock and short on Microsoft - since it is pretty clear that they will be sticking to their guns with Ballmer. I've never owned an Mac but I've used a few and I see them as the next best thing, especially with the affordable mini model out, a good architecture to boot, and style that drops Microsoft right on its ass.
what has Ballmer actually done? (Score:3, Insightful)
I suppose there have been a few standard application updates. I don't really consider that to be managerial genius.
Longhorn is way behind schedule. Windows is way overloaded with security issues. Msft is being sued left and right - msft paid out about $3 billion in lawsuits in the last year. Stock price is way down. Market share is erroding. XP-SP2 was a flop (IMO). Msft's support for scox has been a scandle and a disgrace. Msft's huge push to patent the work of others as their own isn't helping msft's image.
Re:Gentler side huh? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ballmer - gentle? (Score:2, Insightful)
If you actually know software history, Linux isn't that far ahead of anything. Neither is Windows, really. They are both still tired old horses in the scheme of things. I haven't seen anything from either that is really innovative that is/can be used in a production environment. Everything they do is just either copies of what other people are d