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Ballmer's Flat Results

In my blog last week, I asked you to chime in on Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's effectiveness as corporate leader (one positive reply, but otherwise all I heard was crickets).

I like The Business Insider's chart showing Ballmer's leadership based on the company's stock performance. It was downhill from the start of Gates' announcement that he was retiring and has run flat since then. There was a low point about a year ago, about the time we finally started calling the financial mess a recession, so I suspect charts for most companies that day were rock bottom. Ever since, the stock has been marching upward. Microsoft will be releasing Q2 financials, which includes any real money made from Windows 7.

So, will Microsoft's stock see better days under Ballmer, or is it time for him to go?

Posted by Michael Domingo on 01/27/2010 at 4:55 PM


Reader Comments:

Sun, Jan 31, 2010 Geoff

I think there is to much emphasis put on Wall Street by CEOs. This has caused short term focus by public companies that are not in the best long term interest for the company.
I heard Ballmer last week address a concern from a user of Microsoft products. While he was on the stage he grabbed a piece of paper, wrote down what the user was saying, and assured the user that he will work with him to address the concern. He even gave out his email address for the user to contact him.
What I saw there was a CEO who is customer focused. Customers make Microsoft profitable, not Wall Street. Wall Street should be following Microsoft, instead of Microsoft following Wall Street. As far as Microsoft recent mis-steps, they are a very large corporation that sometimes loose focus when they feel they are in the lead. Vista and Google was enough of a shake-up to get everyone focused, and they have come out swinging. Hopefully they don't let the recent success get to their heads.

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