There are three broad conclusions about Steve Ballmer’s tenure as Microsoft CEO, which will come to an end within 12 months.
The most negative is illustrated by his being laughably wrong about the iPhone and is bolstered by instant or slow-burning failures in phones (the Kin) and tablets (Surface). A pragmatist would counter by noting that the company under Ballmer more than tripled sales, doubled profits and found minor successes (such as the XBox) while preserving enterprise and services profits. Finally, the “glass is half-full” observers might note that while Microsoft’s market value is a fraction of what it was when he took over, the same can be said for most of the giants of 2000 amid a tech bubble.
Ballmer’s legacy will include all these things, and we haven’t even gotten to the thorny questions of who will run Microsoft next and what the company’s future holds. Here’s a brief guide to what’s out there (Editor’s note: Updated to add names of sources next to links):
Ballmer’s retiring within 12 months: The details
- Ballmer’s e-mail to employees. (The Verge)
- Stock rises on announcement, adding $769 million to his assets. (All Things D)
- A special committee of the board, including Bill Gates, will begin the search for a replacement. (International Business Times)
- Ballmer remains on the full board of Microsoft and is expected to have a say in who succeeds him. (Seattle Times)
- Everyone says Gates won’t be CEO again. (Business Insider)
Ballmer in his own words
- Biggest failure? Longhorn to Vista. Biggest success? Results that improved the world and shareholders’ wealth. (ZDNet)
- Some of the more famous Ballmer videos. (GigaOm)
- All of Ballmer’s mistaken insights and failures illustrated by quotes. (All Things D)
Ballmer’s legacy
“Hey, lay off Ballmer!”
- He delivered profits despite suffering from “the innovator’s curse,” and he didn’t kill the company. (Asymco)
- All the giants of 2000 have declined in market cap (unless you’re in oil). (Dan Primack’s Term Sheet blog)
Mixed
- Ballmer chose profits over relevance. On that mark, he succeeded. (Stratechery)
- Many acquisitions — too many? (DealBook)
- “Ballmer wasn’t a bad manager. He just had terrible timing.” (Washington Post’s The Switch blog)
- Battered by outside forces, but also “the wrong leader for Microsoft.” (All Things D)
- He didn’t embrace XBox but didn’t kill it. (VentureBeat)
- Our criticism of Ballmer’s innovation failures are a reflection of our national fear of stagnation. (Harvard Business Review online)
He was a disaster
- “Ballmer is roughly the tech industry’s equivalent of Mikhail Gorbachev.” (The New Yorker’s Currency blog)
- A terrible manager because of the company’s terrible stacking system. (Slate’s Future Tense blog)
- Two big successes, two big failures. (ReadWrite)
- He drove away the developers Microsoft so desperately needed. (ReadWrite)
What kind of CEO does Microsoft need?
- A CEO who has many talents in many areas; strategy needs to be a focus. (Bloomberg)
- “No one is an obvious candidate.” (New York Times)
- Whatever it does, Microsoft must move quickly, but it might fail to do so. (New York Times)
- Someone who will bring change. (USA Today)
- “Look for another Steve Ballmer, but without that salesman’s overconfidence.” (Ars Technica)
- Bill George: Learn from IBM and HP. (Bill George)