RSS Feeds
Press
WSJ on the Gates/Ballmer Power Struggle at Microsoft
Posted by Brian Lam at 4:22 PM on June 5, 2008
The WSJ has an article looking at the struggle Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer had in switching around their Junior/Senior relationship.
Things became so bitter that, on one occasion, Mr. Gates stormed out of a meeting in a huff after a shouting match in which Mr. Ballmer jumped to the defence of several colleagues, according to an individual present at the time. After the exchange, Mr. Ballmer seemed "remorseful," the person said.
Gradually, Mr. Ballmer made his imprint. He restructured the company to give more decision-making power to executives, and elevated people with general management experience into positions previously held by technology-focused executives. He also worked to settle Microsoft's many lawsuits, taking a more conciliatory line than Mr. Gates typically had, Microsoft executives say.
Once Mr. Gates leaves, "I'm not going to need him for anything. That's the principle," Mr. Ballmer says. "Use him, yes, need him, no."
[WSJ]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
takashimike 2.0
Posted 4:41 PM 5/6/08
Was Ballmer a drill sargeant or something?
takashimike 2.0
Syrus28
Posted 5:17 PM 5/6/08
Bill Gates should totally bitch slap him, and revoke his "resignation"...Does Ballmer really deserve to be the CEO of the most powerful software developer in the world? No...
Syrus28
bobdobbs
Posted 5:14 PM 5/6/08
@takashimike 2.0: Nope. Sweaty mid-western college drop-out, si. Military training, non.
bobdobbs
Tim Faulkner
Posted 5:04 PM 5/6/08
The best details -- what sides they took when they fought and who won -- are nowhere to be found, but a good article nonetheless.
Tim Faulkner
bobdobbs
Posted 5:31 PM 5/6/08
@Syrus28: It's shocking that he hasn't been ousted by shareholders yet. Although having a monopoly on the corporate desktop doesn't lend itself very well to annual-growth, Microsoft is little more than a utility company at this point. New ways of making money ain't in the cards with Monkey Boy calling the shots.
bobdobbs
Tim Faulkner
Posted 5:56 PM 5/6/08
@takashimike 2.0: Brownie salesman. [d6.allthingsd.com]
Tim Faulkner
bookmark
Posted 6:13 PM 5/6/08
Ballmer is a monkey, bill is the brain
bookmark
Rodeodave
Posted 8:07 PM 5/6/08
Guys, check out the Ballmer-Bot...sick
+ Watch video
Rodeodave
OMG! Ponies!
Posted 8:34 PM 5/6/08
Here's how the power struggle works out:
SB: You know Bill - technically, I'm the guy in charge now...
BG: I don't think we've met. I'm Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft. And you are?
SB: Hey, I founded this company too.
BG: Once again, I'm Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft. And you are?
OMG! Ponies!
aussie
Posted 8:16 PM 5/6/08
Gates is one of the greatest minds of our time, Ballmer on the other hand has shown with Vista that MS is in the wrong hands... What Gates should have done is get Jobs/Apple to take over OS development.
aussie
Nighthawkz
Posted 9:15 PM 5/6/08
This does not bode well for M$ at all.
Nighthawkz
fly boy
Posted 10:50 PM 5/6/08
@DashTheHand: Gates looks like the uber Geek he is - the Harvard drop outwho realised you had to charge for sofware - and not give it away - if you were going to do it for a living.
Steve on the other hand ...
fly boy
DashTheHand
Posted 10:27 PM 5/6/08
That picture makes them both look like creepy Sesame Street characters.
DashTheHand
strider_mt2k
Posted 10:27 PM 5/6/08
Balmer seems to be as sickly, pale and wheezy on the inside as he appears to be on the outside.
I don't think I like him very much, but he's got people he pays to tell him not to care about that.
strider_mt2k
reddingofish
Posted 11:08 PM 5/6/08
Remember what happened when Jobs left Apple?
reddingofish
Joseph
Posted 11:06 PM 5/6/08
@takashimike 2.0: Alcoholic... pretty much the same thing though.
Joseph
Geisrud
Posted 11:04 PM 5/6/08
It seems that you have to wear V-neck sweaters and clap like a pansy to be a rich powerful CEO these days.
Geisrud
NNTPgrip
Posted 11:32 PM 5/6/08
Every project that has started and finished with Ballmer at the head if aweful. Gates needs to jump back in there and fire a bunch of people over Vista, Exchange 2007, and get these things fixed.
They could fix Vista's underpinnings by removing the DRM checking subsystem, and returning to the unified driver architecture - but they will never do that.
What they really need to do is fix the UI, I have never seen such an unorganized mess. Why does it take 9 clicks to do something that in XP would take 3? Why is there no up navigation button in an explorer window? Why is the menu bar hidden with no indication that you can hit Alt to show it? Why does the "bread crumb" navigation bar pull-down to show web URLS, which don't even work when clicked? Why are there like ten network connections on most machines(virtual and not), and 4 control panels now to "help" you connect to various networks?
Some people will put up with windows(regardless of version) everyday on a machine that may blue screen on them regularly, is slow as crap, or otherwise is screwed up badly in some way. They don't switch to a Mac because they know how to use Windows, and that took them a long time to figure out what little they know. Now, with the UI changes alone, people are moving to Mac since they need a new computer, seen Vista, and that switch in their head that decides "I'm going to have to learn all over again" flipped, so they figure "why not learn this Mac everyone is talking about". This is microsoft's mistake, they changed too much, and they changed stuff just to change it. They didn't fix anything, you still can have a copy operation interrupted and not tell it to continue with the remaining files, you still can print to a printer that requires authentication and have it do nothing until you connect to a file share on the server its connected to so you can actually be prompted for credentials since Windows printing is too dumb to do it etc. etc.
I'm done...
NNTPgrip
kylo4
Posted 11:25 PM 5/6/08
Wasn't Ballmer the guy in "Pirates of Silicon Valley" who kept trying to Bill a stripper and he was portrayed as a frat party boy? Not that I believe a lot of what's in that movie, but when I saw him leaping on stage it brought those scenes back.
kylo4
Shrapnail
Posted 11:22 PM 5/6/08
whats up with bill's hands being reversed
Shrapnail
1timeonly
Posted 12:21 AM 6/6/08
so correct me if i'm wrong, but it would appear that SB's view of BG, ie. "Use him, yes, need him, no." is probably the same as his view of the average MS customer?
1timeonly
Joseph
Posted 12:39 AM 6/6/08
@reddingofish: Jobs didn't really leave because he wanted to, he pretty much got kicked out.
Microsoft is on an awesome path.
Joseph
Rabid Penguin
Posted 12:32 AM 6/6/08
Look between Gates and Ballmer under the "Vis" part of Windows Vista. Did Ballmer fart out glitter? Look at that expression on his face... it looks like he's trying to push out something.
Rabid Penguin
1timeonly
Posted 12:29 AM 6/6/08
damn it sorry, i posted, it didn't show up, i got impatient, i posted again, now i'm anidiot!
1timeonly
1timeonly
Posted 12:28 AM 6/6/08
so SB view of BG seems to correspond with his view of the average MS customer....
1timeonly
bms
Posted 1:49 AM 6/6/08
The only imprint Ballmer has made is in his shirt.
bms
dead_red_eyes
Posted 2:20 AM 6/6/08
"He restructured the company to give more decision-making power to executives, and elevated people with general management experience into positions previously held by technology-focused executives."
That's really lame I think. Ballmer seems like a complete ass.
dead_red_eyes
Aleung
Posted 3:12 AM 6/6/08
Last night, I try to install SP1 for Vista and it gave me an error code (so 1960). M$ should die. It was a mistake that IBM made and we all live with it everyday.
Aleung
LindsayJoy's MBP is into S+M
Posted 3:56 AM 6/6/08
Why are the Borg wearing Star Trek Uniforms?
+ Watch video
LindsayJoy's MBP is into S+M
Monty
Posted 4:25 AM 6/6/08
@Shrapnail:
It is Hand Clapping 2.0 Ultimate Edition.
Monty
fly boy
Posted 5:39 AM 6/6/08
its the string off camera
fly boy
Rabid Penguin
Posted 8:24 AM 6/6/08
@Shrapnail: huh?
Rabid Penguin