With the threat of a recession in the air, many companies are going to start looking for places to cut unnecessary spending. I have an idea for Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft Corp., which, along with most other technology companies, may see its sales growth slow as companies and consumers clamp down on spending.
I’m at the Hyatt in Santa Clara, Calif., tonight where Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is going to be speaking to the Churchill Club in conversation with Hummer Winblad founder Ann Winblad. I’ll be blogging it live.
My colleague Mark Ververka is up in Redmond today for the Microsoft (MSFT) Financial Analysts’ Meeting, where the company is trying to convince the Street that it has a viable online strategy. Here’s Mark’s latest update from the scene.
Bill Gates has left the building and the question on many people’s lips is: Will Microsoft change as a result? What influence will Steve Ballmer have and how will the company’s strategy alter without Gates? Here are five ideas about what could change at Microsoft now that Gates is no longer at the helm in Redmond….
Who should be Bill Gates’s technical successor at Microsoft? It’s not CEO Steve Ballmer, who at last month’s D6 Conference admitted, “I am not an engineer.” I’ll say. Steve is a marketing guy who has put other marketing guys in charge of Microsoft. Should it be Bill’s handpicked successors, Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie or Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer?
Investment firm Mithras Capital, which owns 1.7 million Yahoo (YHOO) shares, today sent an open letter to Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer proposing that the software giant outline the “alternative transaction” that the company has said would have lifted the value of Yahoo shares to more than $33 a share.
Oh joy, another high-profile prognosticator predicting the demise of the American newspaper–and this time the soothsayer is no less than Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. … Well, if Steve Ballmer can so cavalierly predict the end of an industry, so can we. By 2018, there will be no more Microsoft.
It didn’t quite have the sentimental feeling of the Steve Jobs & Bill Gates talk from last year, but it was interesting to see the dynamic of Steve Ballmer & Bill Gates. I think it was great to see Bill step back and let Steve enjoy the limelight, and not take himself too seriously. I think instead of writing about the whole conversation, I am going to share this tiny bit I captured on video that shows how relaxed Gates is feeling these days, now that he has shifted all responsibilities to Ballmer
Jerry Yang was able to rope-a-dope Steve Ballmer. But he’s never had to square off against a royal pain in the ass like Carl Icahn. Wednesday afternoon, Icahn, a billionaire with a God complex — or is that repetitive? — wrote a new chapter in this deliciously goofy Microhoo saga when he launched plans for a proxy contest to challenge Yahoo’s famously feckless board of directors with his own handpicked nominees.
Jerry Yang’s spin campaign about why the Microsoft bid fell through is transparent. He’s not trying to cajole Steve Ballmer back to the negotiating table; he’s trying to cover his rear and appease indignant shareholders. The only reason he’s so open about accepting a new bid from Microsoft, I think, is that he’s not expecting another one to come.
I wrote Friday about the daunting math that Microsoft suddenly faced if it didn’t significantly boost its stake in Yahoo. In short, though Yahoo insiders and generally supportive institutions control less than 40% of Yahoo’s outstanding shares, they easily control a majority of shares likely to be voted in a hostile proxy contest. Average Joes rarely vote in such fights, boosting the power of the pros. Why Microsoft’s bankers at Morgan Stanley didn’t figure this out sooner–or why CEO Steve Ballmer didn’t listen–is one of the intriguing tales that may yet be told. As of the opening bell Monday morning, however, the math changes immediately …
Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang will be slammed in the media over the next coming weeks. In my opinion, the criticism will be well founded. It is very tough to make an argument that Mr. Yang is acting in the best interest of his shareholders in rejecting Microsoft’s buyout offer. Personally, I can’t wait to see how long it takes the share price to reach $33. Good luck, Mr. Yang.
Yahoo’s search partnership with Google played a major role in allowing the company to fight off Microsoft. By offering the hope of immediately higher cash flow, it should also stop Yahoo’s stock price from falling back to the teens.
In his sayonara letter, Steve Ballmer urged Yahoo to kill the partnership, arguing that the engineers behind Panama were one of the main reasons Microsoft wanted to buy Yahoo and that, if Yahoo did the deal with Google, they would leave.
And he’s right: They will (or at least they’ll move on to other projects). That’s part of the reason the outsourcing deal makes sense: It allows Yahoo to focus on businesses it can win, instead of throwing money at a war it has already lost.
“Hey! Ho! Time for Ballmer to Go,” a Wired.com headline proclaimed on Tuesday. My rejoinder: “Hell, no. There are no Softies ready for a promo.” Wired’s story attempts to make a case for CEO Steve Ballmer taking the hits for Vista’s less-than-stellar market reception, as well as the so-far-unconsummated Yahoo-Microsoft merger. “Other CEOs have gotten canned for lesser crimes,” Wired concludes. There’s just one problem, as Wired notes in an aside. No one’s ready to step up within the company and fill Ballmer’s big shoes.
One more Microhoo observation before:
A) They announce the tech deal of the century.
B) They go to the mattresses.
C) They continue to screw around just to keep us sleep-deprived.
So let’s assume that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer wakes up tomorrow and Yahoo’s a done deal. First order of business is to find the right person for the job. But that’s where Ballmer’s going to have to summon the wisdom of Solomon.
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