Is it Time for Microsoft to Replace Ballmer?

[Tharic-Nar]

It's been over ten years since Steve Ballmer stepped into the CEO position at Microsoft, and since then, he's retained a lot of control over the company's direction. With the major success of select Windows releases, not to mention the Xbox and other Microsoft entities, it's hard to refer to Ballmer has a complete failure. In recent years, however, many are starting to wonder if he's still fit to head the company, with a hedge fund manager being the latest to tell Microsoft that "it's time".

You can read the rest of our post and discuss here.

 

[Tharic-Nar]

I think another indicator would be stock price - Microsoft has pretty much flat-lined over the last couple years. Recession based? Possibly... It's price goes up for a bit, then dips sharply, then up for a bit, then another dip; actually, looking at the last 5 years, its price is almost the same as 2006. It's not as if the company is losing money, it's just not keeping the shareholders happy.

Is he doing a bad job? I doubt it, but he does lack that memorable charm of a certain Gates. How many still associate Bill Gates with Microsoft, even though he's had nothing to do with the company for years?

 

[marfig]

Indeed. The company stock price despite consistent large winnings over the years is a good indication the company isn't "passing the message". A task that is that of the CEO. But I also have no doubt that a part of this is due to the "mobile bubble" hitting the markets who now think only companies heavily invested in mobile development (hardware or software) and with good results from that work are worth buying stocks from. Which, just like any other bubble, is a load of crap.

In any case, Ballmer isn't the type of person to bring a consensus. He's not liked inside Microsoft by a good deal of administrators, and he's not consensual either outside Microsoft as many people doubt this man ability to steer Microsoft. This is definitely a sign of weakness in this day and age when high profile tech companies exhibit their CEOs has the company image. For this alone, Ballmer should in my opinion, step out.

... But with a good deal in his pocket. Like the man or not, under his leardership the company grew more than in the past. It is today an even bigger giant than before. He also had the company cross the low public opinion firewall of the late 90s and early 00s, nearly unscathed. Those were not good years, yet Microsoft is today more respected and less a target of a certain irrational prejudice that started to dominate the masses during that period. Personally, I also have to add his speaker notes on "developers, developers, developers..." that despite being theatrical and even embarrassing, proved him right. Microsoft holds today a set of development tools, frameworks and APIs that are not only the dream of any developer, they are solid and reliable pieces of software engineering developers can trust.

 

[Kougar]

Okay guys, I have to give credit where credit is due. That has to be the newest, least flattering photo of Ballmer I've seen to date, and I've seen a few.

The point of a stock is to make money, and for a small investor simply getting a 10-15 cent dividend per share isn't much of a return for a stock that has no chances of going up and no future splits. 8.5 billion shares is quite a lot of shares, and Microsoft's potential for growth is minimal... while the potential for risk is strong as ever. Why invest in MS shares when even a savings account would have netted higher returns, at least before the crash.