Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gates Successor May Leave, Steve Ballmer Expected to be Kicked Out Too

Ray Ozzie at Web 2.0 Conference
Photo via Wikipedia, speech bubble added



Summary: Speculations about Ray Ozzie preparing to move on and Microsoft's CEO getting the boot

EARLIER this month, Microsoft's chief financial officer (CFO) announced that he is quitting, having sold many shares. Kevin McLaughlin from ChannelWeb is one among two people (one of whom is a Microsoft booster, Mr. Gralla) who read some writings on the wall and suspect that "Ray Ozzie [May Be] On His Way Out At Microsoft"



Does the executive reshuffle that accompanied the unveiling of Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT)'s new Server & Cloud Division (SCD) in early December mean that Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie is leaving Microsoft?


The 'Microsoft press' wonders about this too. For those who do not know, "On June 15, 2006, Ozzie took over the role of Chief Software Architect from Bill Gates."

McLaughlin wrote another short article about Newsweek's prediction that Steve Ballmer will "get canned".

2010 will be the year when shareholders finally decide they've had enough of Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer, Newsweek said in its Predictions For 2010 report issued this week.

Newsweek noted that Microsoft's stock has fallen almost 50 percent since Ballmer ascended to the CEO position nearly a decade ago and claimed that distractions like Windows Vista have kept Ballmer from moving into "every new big tech market of the past decade."


Some investors want Ballmer out and one Microsoft shareholder likens Steve Ballmer to Bernard Madoff. Many articles called for him to be fired around March of 2008 after he had made the catastrophic bid for Yahoo!

“What about the piles of failed products, worse than useless technologies, illegal unethical and anticompetitive business practices, price gouging, growth-though-acquisition, and so on?”
      --Anonymous
Meanwhile, one of our readers has identified what he considers to be "Microsoft whitewash" [1, 2]. Matt Asay is trying to blame Ballmer for Microsoft's failure (the company has debt now). Maybe Asay just reads too much CNET, but either way, our reader wrote to us two hours ago: "It's pretty ****ing sick how Asay is trying to whitewash Bill Gates' past activities at Microsoft.

"What about the piles of failed products, worse than useless technologies, illegal unethical and anticompetitive business practices, price gouging, growth-though-acquisition, and so on?

"Gates built the crappy reputation that Microsoft has today. What is Matt getting out of whitewashing him?"

Actually, Bill Gates continues some of his old (and nasty) practices under the umbrella of the Gates Foundation.

As Comes vs Microsoft exhibits show, a lot of Microsoft's crimes were masterminded by Bill Gates himself, not just his minions. In fact, Ballmer is a lot more benign than Gates based on the court's evidence.

Microsoft has just made some financial announcements about dividend and the next financial report:

Microsoft Corp. will release fiscal year 2010 second-quarter financial results after the close of the market on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010.


In the previous report, which Microsoft concealed by releasing it on the same day as Vista 7's overly-hyped up release, Windows revenue was down 40% and more layoffs came just 2 weeks later.

The Microsoft crowd does not know how to properly counter claims that "it is game over for Microsoft in consumer" (maybe because it's true).

This new press release reveals the loss of another Microsoft veteran, who is finding a new host in MediaTrust.

MediaTrust (www.mediatrust.com), the digital performance marketing company, has named Microsoft veteran David Coburn to the new position of Head of Product.


One real problem is that as Microsoft disintegrates it sheds off a lot of pro-Microsoft people, who in turn join other companies and have influence there.

Enron Microsoft

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