After 14 years as the CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer has announced he is retiring within the next 12 months. Ballmer’s last task before leaving the company is to find his replacement. The letter title ‘Moving forward’ explains the timing is right now between product cycles.
While Ballmer has had many, lets call them events, to remember, probably the one that reflects the impact he had at Microsoft, it’s this. “We have grown from $7.5 million to nearly $78 billion since I joined Microsoft, and we have grown from employing just over 30 people to almost 100,000”.
Any time the head of a large company exists, the internet reflects on the career and predict what’s next. While there’s lots of analysis, below are three of the best discussions of the announcement.
TWiT Specials
Microsoft journalists Mary Jo Foley and Paul Thurott discuss Ballmer’s retirement in the next 12 months.
LAUNCH Ticker news
In this news update from the LAUNCH Ticker, Steve Ballmer’s planned departure from Microsoft. Who will replace Ballmer? Entrepreneur Jason Calacanis runs through some possible candidates. Including a far outside pick: Mark Zuckerberg. More likely, but still a dark horse, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. A look at Ballmer’s 14 year tenure as CEO, including analysis of stock performance, revenue and market cap.
The Verge
Join Dieter Bohn and resident Microsoft expert Tom Warren for a special discussion on Steve Ballmer’s retirement announcement
TechCrunch
Today Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced that he will retire in the next 12 months. His successor is not known, but the move marks the end of an era in technology, as Ballmer himself has become a controversial stalwart in the sector. The stock market rewarded the company with a 7.29 percent bump in its share price following the news. However, Ballmer’s final years at the company have been marked with change. TechCrunch writers Alex Wilhelm and Frederic Lardinois connect on Skype to talk about the news of Steve Ballmer’s retirement.
