
The End of Ballmer? - aneesh
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/04/does-ballmer-need-to-go/
======
wanorris
Microsoft has made some missteps, but in the end, they really just have two
problems they need to address now, and two they need to address over the next
couple of years. Ballmer has the potential to handle them, but if he doesn't
get them sorted out, they'll need someone else who can.

The current problems are that they have a failed product cycle with Windows
Vista, and they refuse to admit it, and they've set a goal of beating Google
on Google's home turf, and they have no hope of attaining it. They need to own
up to their mistakes with Vista, and announce that they will support XP side-
by-side with Vista until Windows 7 ships. They also need to admit that they
have no hope of winning in the search and contextual advertising businesses,
and dial back their internet ambitions to try to focus on moving their Office
business forward to clients interested in software-as-a-service.

Their longer-term problems are that they're losing market share to Macs and
that they've ceded leadership in the browser and internet standards space to
others. They need to make sure that with Win7, they deliver something people
actually want, and they need to open up their internet roadmap and try to
really work with standards groups instead of blowing them off.

All these problems are correctable, and Microsoft will have to make even more
serious mistakes going forward to really implode their whole business. Whether
Ballmer is the right guy to fix things remains to be seen.

~~~
dreish
From the article, it sounds to me like Microsoft's biggest problem is that
Ballmer's direct reports are tired of dealing with him, and want him to fail.

Gates got away with the temper tantrums because everyone at Microsoft had a
deep and abiding respect for him and his accomplishments, but Ballmer doesn't
have that. If they can't have a living legend, they need a CEO with a little
more charisma.

------
njetx
Walking away from over-paying for Yahoo is probably the smartest thing Ballmer
has done since becoming CEO. Did Yahoo manage to convince anyone that they
really have a strong go-it-alone strategy? Why pay now when you can pay half
in 12 months time.

My prediction is Ballmer will still be comfortable in the CEO suite by the end
of the year.

------
ArcticCelt
I am surprise that people speculate about the end of Ballmer when in fact it's
the end of Jerry Yang that we will see very soon. I can't wait for the stock
market to open in a couple of hours, my popcorn is ready. (It's not so much
that I wish Yahoo to go down but more that I am exited to see what will really
happen).

------
edw519
Let's count Ballmer's winners:

\- MSN search vs. google?

\- hotmail vs. gmail?

\- xbox vs. wii?

\- zune vs. ipod?

\- Silverlight vs. AJAX?

\- Windows vs. linux?

\- Vista vs. OSX?

\- .net vs. anything that works?

At what point do you stop blaming the soldiers and hold the general
acountable?

~~~
aneesh
Good points.

But I'm pretty sure hotmail still has higher market share than GMail. And
though I use Ubuntu over Windows, but the world is still all about Windows.
From a revenue perspective, Windows made more money this year than in any
previous year. That's good news for Ballmer.

And Surface is really cool. MS Research does incredible work. Office is still
king, and no one has come up with anything close to an Outlook-killer yet.

I don't actually use any of the products you or I mentioned, but MS has plenty
of strengths and smart people to balance it's blatant failures.

Edit: Photosynth is yet another highly impressive product from MS Live Labs.

~~~
edw519
Now.

<rhetorical question>

Do you think Microsoft's board is smart enough to know how fast the tech world
is changing?

</rhetorical question>

~~~
mattmaroon
I think this is the problem. The c-suite at MSFT is full of people who were in
the software industry in 1980. I don't really know who all is on the board,
but they definitely need to get some fresh blood in the executive offices.

------
bluelu
He probably does a great job with all those Microsoft haters out there (and
here)

------
lst
But I love Ballmer!

He does in fact perfectly fit Minisoft (...and thinking that I wanted to make
it BIGGER.)

------
melvinram
Doubt it!

~~~
melvinram
Regardless of how this has gone thus far, Yahoo will sell to MS at a lower
price than $33/share. And even if it doesn't, Steve will order some
restructuring to advanced their search ambitions. Steve is safe. And worst
come worst, he'll be left with his hundreds of millions. So sad!? Right!

