Ballmer leaves investors speechless in Seattle
He won't go quietly, huh
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The pressure must be getting to Microsoft's very own bald eagle Steve Ballmer as he issued a stinging public rebuke - for the first time - to dissenting investors calling for his head, and used the soon-to-be released fiscal 2011 results to back up his reputation.
According to reports in the Seattle Times, Microsoft's CEO shouted at a captive audience attending a civic bash in the city's Rotary Club yesterday.
"You tell me if I lack energy, conviction or we're not driving change we need to drive," he bellowed.
Calls for Ballmer to quit the firm have been growing in recent weeks - including from high profile hedge fund bigwig David Einhorn, president of Greenlight Capital - given the firm's share price stagnation, and IBM and Apple's overtaking it in terms of market capitalisation.
The nine-strong board continues to support him.
To justify his top seat, Ballmer then gave a sneak preview of Microsoft results for the year ended 30 June, not due to be published for some weeks yet.
"There's a reason why we'll do almost $70bn in revenue this year and we'll make over $20, whatever, $26, $27bn in profits," he added.
Redmond then clarified post-event to the ST that the big cheese was actually referring to operating profits of $26bn to $27bn, slightly lower than analyst estimates of $27.2bn and sales of $69.8bn.
Microsoft refused to comment. ®
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COMMENTS
No Worries Stevey
I'm actually OK if he stays on at the helm.
The world will be a better place with a MUCH smaller and less influential Microsoft.
Full blown tablet computer
Complete with crap battery life, multi kilo weight and an OS that, let's be honest, is less than ideal for a touch interface.
FACT: Windows tablets failed in the market place.
You cretins can blame it on "fancy marketing" all you like but the the truth is that it doesn't matter how well you market a turd, people will not buy it once they realise that it is, in fact, a turd.
Rubbish
Gates had vision eh? You are talking about Bill Gates? William Gates III? The CEO of a top software company who dismissed the internet as a fad? The same person who had to reissue a 2nd edition of his book on technology because he basically missed the internet?
That Gates?
Vision my arse! The only vision Gates had was how he was going to extract money from your wallet.
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