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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months
Steve Jobs on Microsoft ("I have a problem with the fact that they just make really third-rate products.")
One of my favorite Ballmer remixes:
Ballmer and Gates: "Night at the Roxbury":
Ballmer autotune: "I Love This Company":
I'm not doing anything in terms of investments for a long while (not saying anything about the market good or bad, just nothing I really want and nothing I really want to sell), but I'd consider MSFT later this year if things cool off after this move. I think what's remarkable is that there have been instances in the past of people pushing for this (Einhorn did), but Ballmer always seemed to have the backing of Gates. Maybe that is no longer the case.
People have also looked too closely at Microsoft at just their Windows desktop OS business but they are much more diversified now. Hell, Office 2010 an example was huge for them.
Your average worker probably doesn't even know that their company is using MS Exchange on the backend. MS Lync is competing head-on with Cisco Jabber.
MS SQL Server has also come a long way and from a market-share perspective they are neck and neck with Oracle. In fact, Oracle and Microsoft just signed a partnership for cloud services.
SharePoint is widely used and has grown tremendously over the past 5+ years.
MS has also been revamping their System Center Suite and still working hard to improve that suite of products especially for the "Private Cloud." A lot of people haven't even heard of these suite of products except for your Datacenter engineers and IT Managers/Directors.
They are also doing a lot in enhancing and developing further their Cloud offerings around Azure. For example - the City of London uses Microsoft Azure as an App Platform service to host an App that feeds GPS info to users (pc, tablet, smartphone, etc.) so that users can see the whereabouts of public transportation (e.g. trains) and expected arrival times at different stops. I think they get a million hits per day from this hosted app service.
Toyota uses Azure as well to centrally share apps and because it's in the cloud - it makes it easily for centralized collaboration from engineers around the world.
And of course they are still pumping up and selling their Office 365 service where you can get things like Exchange and SharePoint service thru the cloud.
Don't forget they also purchased Yammer and Skype and so look for even further integration of those into their products.
They also now have CRM Dynamics available in the cloud.
A lot of Thin Client devices are still using Windows Embedded OS's. In fact, HP just announced a new HP t820 powerful quad-core THIN CLIENT and will be running Windows Embedded. Linux Thin Clients still have a sizable share as well.
And of course Windows Servers are still dominant in datacenters.
Amazon Cloud services is huge --- but guess what? Most of the Servers they are carving out for customers are Windows Servers --- cha'ching for Microsoft too.
Organizations who are starting to use something like VMware View and Citrix XenDesktop are also paying Microsoft big licensing costs because there are Microsoft components to these solutions including MS Servers and virtual desktops. That's something that goes unnoticed by the average layman person.
*** This is just an example why Microsoft still made money and collected a big stash of cash and was able to pay some dividends despite VISTA being a huge flop and Zune also flopping....it's something the average person doesn't realize or see. They're a much more diversified company branching out into different technology segments and services than they were 10 years ago.
I am a Apple fan and user but I will try to control my bias.
If the gains hold long enough, Balmer helps his retirement. The bigger question is, who will take his place? That could really jumpstart this stock which has never returned back to its glory from the 90's.
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer, the world’s 44th-richest person, has seen his net worth jump $786 million after announcing his retirement from the world’s largest software maker.
Well, I suppose it depends on your perspective, whether you view the world cynically or not. If I were Mr. Ballmer, I would find it bittersweet.
Reply to @JohnChisum: Yeah, I'm an Apple person too, but I really don't think that Balmer was personally responsible for MSFT's path to wherever they are now. He kinda inherited a piece of mature machinery, and if he had tried to take a sudden and radical change of course, would have had a hell of a problem without tearing apart the institution that he inherited. Just too damned big and clumsy.
When Jobs came back to Apple and started an immediate rework he didn't have that problem at all- Apple was damned near on the rocks, and any change had to be worth a try.
Reply to @Old_Joe: Point well taken OJ. Jobs also came back in time to shift Apple into mobile mode while MSFT stuck to the tried and true which was changing. In a sense it is the tale of two Microsofts. The server side and the consumer side.
I also think Jobs matured at the moment he retook Apple leadership. Even though he had some eccentric behaviors, he also had the clear vision to steer Apple into the mobile universe and changed several industries in the process.
Comments
A fair number of value investors own Microsoft stock!
One of my favorite Ballmer remixes:
Ballmer and Gates: "Night at the Roxbury":
Ballmer autotune: "I Love This Company":
I'm not doing anything in terms of investments for a long while (not saying anything about the market good or bad, just nothing I really want and nothing I really want to sell), but I'd consider MSFT later this year if things cool off after this move. I think what's remarkable is that there have been instances in the past of people pushing for this (Einhorn did), but Ballmer always seemed to have the backing of Gates. Maybe that is no longer the case.
Your average worker probably doesn't even know that their company is using MS Exchange on the backend. MS Lync is competing head-on with Cisco Jabber.
MS SQL Server has also come a long way and from a market-share perspective they are neck and neck with Oracle. In fact, Oracle and Microsoft just signed a partnership for cloud services.
SharePoint is widely used and has grown tremendously over the past 5+ years.
MS has also been revamping their System Center Suite and still working hard to improve that suite of products especially for the "Private Cloud." A lot of people haven't even heard of these suite of products except for your Datacenter engineers and IT Managers/Directors.
They are also doing a lot in enhancing and developing further their Cloud offerings around Azure. For example - the City of London uses Microsoft Azure as an App Platform service to host an App that feeds GPS info to users (pc, tablet, smartphone, etc.) so that users can see the whereabouts of public transportation (e.g. trains) and expected arrival times at different stops. I think they get a million hits per day from this hosted app service.
Toyota uses Azure as well to centrally share apps and because it's in the cloud - it makes it easily for centralized collaboration from engineers around the world.
And of course they are still pumping up and selling their Office 365 service where you can get things like Exchange and SharePoint service thru the cloud.
Don't forget they also purchased Yammer and Skype and so look for even further integration of those into their products.
They also now have CRM Dynamics available in the cloud.
A lot of Thin Client devices are still using Windows Embedded OS's. In fact, HP just announced a new HP t820 powerful quad-core THIN CLIENT and will be running Windows Embedded. Linux Thin Clients still have a sizable share as well.
And of course Windows Servers are still dominant in datacenters.
Amazon Cloud services is huge --- but guess what? Most of the Servers they are carving out for customers are Windows Servers --- cha'ching for Microsoft too.
Organizations who are starting to use something like VMware View and Citrix XenDesktop are also paying Microsoft big licensing costs because there are Microsoft components to these solutions including MS Servers and virtual desktops. That's something that goes unnoticed by the average layman person.
*** This is just an example why Microsoft still made money and collected a big stash of cash and was able to pay some dividends despite VISTA being a huge flop and Zune also flopping....it's something the average person doesn't realize or see. They're a much more diversified company branching out into different technology segments and services than they were 10 years ago.
If the gains hold long enough, Balmer helps his retirement. The bigger question is, who will take his place? That could really jumpstart this stock which has never returned back to its glory from the 90's.
Ballmer Fortune Up $786 Million as Microsoft CEO Retires
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer, the world’s 44th-richest person, has seen his net worth jump $786 million after announcing his retirement from the world’s largest software maker.
Well, I suppose it depends on your perspective, whether you view the world cynically or not. If I were Mr. Ballmer, I would find it bittersweet.
When Jobs came back to Apple and started an immediate rework he didn't have that problem at all- Apple was damned near on the rocks, and any change had to be worth a try.
I also think Jobs matured at the moment he retook Apple leadership. Even though he had some eccentric behaviors, he also had the clear vision to steer Apple into the mobile universe and changed several industries in the process.