Newsweek Prediction: Microsoft Pushes Out Steve Ballmer

Microsoft stock has dropped by nearly 50 percent on his watch, lagging not just other tech companies but even the Dow Jones industrial average. Distracted by the Windows Vista fiasco, Ballmer has missed every big new tech market of the past decade. Google won the race for Internet search and keyword advertising. Apple won in MP3 players and online music sales, and now holds the high ground in mobile phones, while Windows Mobile fades away. Microsoft's Zune music player is a dud. Bing, Microsoft's search engine, will never catch Google.

[gameseveryday]

"Microsoft stock has dropped by nearly 50 percent"... i thought they were doing good.

[hitthegspot]

It's time for some new blood in there...

[trancefreak]

No surprise if true companies shift players around to stay competitive with new directions.

Im sure balmer is rich and smart enough to land another high profile job or to take some quality time enjoying his earnings.

[Saaking]

MS isn't doing too good. Why do you think they had very few exclusives? They can't buy third parties anymore.

[bjornbear]

this guy is repulsive in every sense of the word, and it reflected on the company

@Saaking

i doubt they can't buy them, MS are still LOADED.

they just aren't investing their heart into their console like other companies do, and shifting resources to other parts of the company.

[Hutch2355]

They are still making billions of dollars in pure profit each year as a company. They started paying a dividend on their stock last year. Many companies that turn huge profits have low stock prices. A lot of it has to do with how many shares are out there. A look at the Market Cap is a better indicator of how much a company is worth. I wouldn't expect morons like Saaking to understand that. Microsoft has 8.9 billions shares out on the market, compare that to Sony who has 1 billion shares on the market. The market cap is the total amount of money if you sold all of the outstanding shares. So Microsoft has a market cap of 296 billion, while Sony has a market cap of 28.7 billion. Huge difference. Now market cap alone does not tell the tale of how well a company is doing, but it is a base line start when talking about a companies worth.

Over the last five years Microsoft stock has had a high of about 38 dollars and a low of 14.87 during the market crash in 08/09. So to say they are doing terrible is ludicras. So for the 2009 fiscal year they had an earnings of 1.54 per share, with 28.7 billions shares, thats quite a bit of "net" profit. So this article, while having a decent point about Balmer, is nothing but flame bait.

[qface64]

am i the only one how thinks balmer can look real scary at times

[Reibooi]

I love how they say the Zune is a dud when the vast majority of people out there thinks the Zune HD is a better product then the Ipod Touch.

[jivah]

well da vast majority disagrees wit u...dats y theres millions n millions of ipods out there compared 2 a few million zunes
wen u mention mp3 2 sumbody da 1st thing most people think of is ipod
dats y its sooo successful

jus like a bunch of da older crowd...alot of em say nintendo 4 gaming..as in my kids home playin nintendo
alot of people say ipod nowadays..zune nevr will b as popular as da ipod

[00]

What? can you please not write in Engrish.

[PS360PCROCKS]

@reibooi - wow I never looked at the Zune HD til I saw your post, I didn't realize it had touchscreen, wifi, HD radio and HD videos, that's pretty awesome. I love Apple Ipods for the interface but they lack features compared to everything else. Just like Macs and Iphones, but nobody realizes that

[Udidntlistenpunk]

They are also the same people who stood in lines at the midnight launch of Windows Vista, the OS that is now generally considered to be utter crap.

I still remember seeing those reports. ROFL those nerds stood there in freezing cold and jumped up and down on their first copy of Vista. WOW!
I was speechless.

No tech junkie in his right sense would claim Zune is better than iPod. Period. iPod has sold what? 20 times more than Zune? I guess the market agrees.

As for MS being a big earner. MS as a whole company makes a lot of money. Unfortunately for you fanboys...MS XBOX division is not. Should MS ever start to scrap divisions, the first divisions to go, is without any doubt the XBOX division.

When that happens, its bye bye XBOX.

[JD_Shadow]

It's going to take more than deep pockets now to get these developers on board for exclusive DLCs and that (look at how poorly the GTA4 ones did. They weren't exactly crashing servers). If MS wants them, they will have to convince them that the 360 is worth going exclusive for, and with Sony on their heels now, devs are going to wonder if it'll be worth it in the long run.

That's the problem MS's games division has, amongst everything else.

[jimbone]

I think you need to look at overall game sales on both platform's before you make a commit like that. If I was an investor and could only pick one of the 2 platforms, i'm sorry but I would go with 360, the games just sale better. This is just from and investors POV not gamers.

[Arnon]

"The only people who think Zune is better, are MS fanboys."

I own an iPod Touch 16 GB (the headphone jack is falling apart, which is common from what I hear) and even I know Zunes are more well-built than their competition. They may not have the support that Apple does, but their players in general are much more solid.

[SaberEdge]

I have owned an iPod Touch and recently I bought a Zune HD and I like the Zune HD better in nearly every way.

To the guy saying that the iPod Touch is better because it has sold more, I thought sales doesn't equal quality? Just because the iPod Touch has sold more doesn't mean it is better. The Zune HD is amazing and I think more and more people will realize that as time goes on.

[darkmurder]

Microsoft still has extremely deep pockets and as a loyal MS fan I must say that Ballmer has got to go. He is too obsessed with the search engine market when realistically he needs to stop wasting money on a lost cause and focus on what MS are good at - OS'. Getting Windows Mobile up to scratch is a huge necessity as well as ensuring their cloud platform is extremely stable and secure. Young blood is needed as both Ballmer and Ray Ozzie are too focussed on the tech ideas of the 90s.

[SilentNegotiator]

Maybe if they dedicated themselves more to Windows, we would get better OSes with less compatibility issues and less consumption.

[orange-skittle]

Microsoft just released Q3 reports and they were down 18%. The article is so biased it never mentioned the sandings of Bing. Noticed it said "Bing will never catch Google." That's because Bing was #2 over Yahoo. They just stated 2 days ago that Yahoo can't compete w/ Bing or Google. This wole article is nonsense and has no facts attached to it. Just because they are not #1 doesn't mean they are failing. They are talking about Zune as if anything can gain ground with iTunes and iPods on the market. That's like saying the PSP is failing compared to the DS or the Xbox 360 is going under because the Wii has sold twice as much.

[n4gn4gn4gn4g]

was and IS RIM that punked MS in the mobile phone area, not Apple.

[bjornbear]

HTC...and I'm extreemly disappointed with Windows Mobile.

Saving up for next gen iPhone for mid- 2010 =)

[CptBach]

Nokia N900 Maemo 5

best phone out there... :D

[duplissi]

...iphone. dont do it.

[KeenanTheSavage]

exactly. they "punked" everybody early and most of the functionality of the iphone takes it's basis of their phones.

[IntelligentAj]

Well I've got a G1 and i'd say that Android is better than Windows mobile also. An this is retarded, MS has been posting good profits for the past couple of years. Their failing of certain areas is the faul of their R&D Department and not Ballmer.

[duplissi]

im lovin my palm pre and webos. doesnt have many apps yet but the expirience of using it is like no other imo.

[freeblue]

ms stock is doing very good. after win 7.. it went from 26 to 30.

[mrv321]

While I agree the recession has had a large part in all this doom and gloom some of Microsoft biggest failing haven't helped much.

Zune and countless others. I believe strongly Microsoft should focus on softwere and gaming instead of the two most clutered markets in the world Phone and MP3's. Microsoft is dominating in terms of OS's and I believe they should really go after that market with a fresh new approach for the next 5 years.

That being said I doubt he'll get the sack.

[iceman2929]

MSFT is about on par with what it has been since the burst of the tech bubble. The problem is that MSFT is no longer a growth comapany. They need to innovate if they want to see their share price rise as much as other tech companies have.

[bjornbear]

an increase is stocks after a big release isn't surprising =/

[Omega Zues]

RIM was way ahead of every body on that one.

[Rocco Siffredi]

MS is still worth 1000% more than Sony, lol.

[snipermk0]

Now, that's what I call as loyalty. Severely butthurt nonetheless that his savior company is doing bad but still a loyal bot.

[wxer]

@1

Sony's Total assets $230.5 billion (2009)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Microsoft's Total assets US$ 77.888 billion (2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

this means that Sony is almost 3 times bigger than MS
( Sony = 3 Microsofts )

[hitthegspot]

Great source???

Sony is actually $123,739,163

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/...

[hitthegspot]

5 Disagree.... Really, well it's hard to swallow fact. Nice to see that the MS number from wicki is correct. Wonder why that is...

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/...

[EvilBlackCat]

Steve Ballmer

You have a lot of freakin money... Just get the fnck out and enjoy it.
Take some quality time with your family and let new people with new and innovative ideas step up.

@ cyborg6971
"The xbox division will be first to go. Because of its profit/lose margin. The zune second. Only for the reason everyone listens to music but not everyone plays games. Start shaking in your boots"

wow what a fncking moron!

[Rocco Siffredi]

4.7 Billion loss.

[Oner]

9 Billion and counting for MS (not including E74, Disc Scratching etc.) ~

http://www.guardian.co.uk/t...

http://www.videogamesblogge...

http://digg.com/gaming_news...

http://gizmodo.com/5015483/...

[DelbertGrady]

I always wash my hands after I've used Bing.

[deshon09]

two yeah they do need some new blood and if they get a new gut it likely thay will say lots of money by paying him or her half of what balmer is making

[Affar]

Dude, stop watching porn on Bing

[Droid Control]

Answer:

It won't.

[cyborg6971]

Wrong. The xbox division will be first to go. Because of its profit/lose margin. The zune second. Only for the reason everyone listens to music but not everyone plays games. Start shaking in your boots.

[Pootangpie]

I suggest you go back to middle school and learn about business before boosting like an annoying twit btw sony still in hugh debt and hasn't made profit off any electronic devices other then the PS3 for past few years

[Akagi]

butthurt

[n4gno]

ridiculous disinformation, as usual with xbobox 'fans.

sony has not a huge debt, and only because of economic recession and powerfull yen + enormous investment (ps3, etc), but they have profits each year with television, bluray, games, etc

"The 360 is the biggest earner of revenue"

LOL. poor uneducated people (enormous marketing + rrod = a lot of $)

[RockmanII7]

A prejudice is a preconceived belief, opinion, or judgment toward a group of people or a single person. So that makes you prejudice, congratulations.

[XXXCouture]

I think it's for the better good. I really like MS, I hope Sony and MS can be competitors for a long time, this "console war" has only brought us good things (and lots of fanboys unfortunately) But Ballmer has been a thorn in the eye for MS (in my opinion) he's a little arrogant in his way of talking about competition. Take this for example http://www.youtube.com/watc... and not only that, he doesn't seem to bring ms anything were you would go, ZOMG AMAZING.

With a Bill Gates-like-type i think MS could do much better, and i hope they learn, and will get some better engineers. so they can make even better hardware. And get some first party studios so they can try out new IP's instead of relying on GeoW, Halo, Fable and Forza

[timestoby]

id sure hate to see wots on his computer lol. hes a perv,you can just tell

[Demon5500]

Here we go again, More Microsoft Hate, and guess what they are doing well, the zune is not a dud, anything that goes head to head with the iphone is bound to sell bad just ask sonys psp-go and psp3000 and the dsi was hammed by iphone sales the games sell billions as well, to bad the blogger is a joke if people take this article as any more then internet humor as true information would come from a press release, And then Steve would be gone like KaZ kicking Phil Harrison in the nuts @ e3 for not laughing at Kaz "Ridge Racer" comment, or the fact that he was starting to doubt the mighty sony money shredder, but I put this under anther day of SDF wet dreams wish list, "propaganda"

[n4gno]

Calm down ms's big fan, windows will allways save their hardware (even the bad one 360 :))

[Sheikh Yerbouti]

...

[Krimmson]

Developers developers developers developers.
Let's all just remember the good times with Steve Ballmer.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Granted, the last line in the video is a bit ironic.

[Strikepackage Bravo]

needs nothing more than new leadership. Ballmer getting canned is exactly what that company needs. All new management in fact is what they need. I have never seen a company with so many resources be so unproductive.

I think part of the problem is the corporate attitude does not encourage free thinking. Plus as soon as someone gets settled into a job role they rip them out and transfer them to a new role.

[Budg3tG4m3r]

When Steve Jobs was bringing Apple down he got the boot, only later when he got his crap together did they bring him back. I think it's time for MS to do the same here. I like MS and I like their products, I don't dislike Ballmer in anyway but he isn't good for MS at the moment. With Gates gone I think maybe MS needs some fresh blood. Not that MS are in any trouble in any way. Having that many billons of $ in the bank ready to spend at anytime is never a bad thing. I just think they need to go a little younger than 60yo exec's who still use DOS and Unix. IMO

[Karooo]

But i honestly feel bad :( ballmer is a cool guy.

[skeletonss]

hows sony doing?

[Budg3tG4m3r]

LOL that was funny

[Karooo]

and they are doing really well atm. Stock prices have gone up after the release of ffxiii :)

[Hutch2355]

no things aren't fine. They will pull out of it, they are too good of a company not to, but don't let the stock price fool ya. That has nothing to do with how they are actually doing. There are a lot of reasons for stock prices to rise or fall. They are not in any trouble, but to day they are doing fine, well when people say Microsoft is doing bad, while making billions of dollars in profit, what does that say about a company that has posted huge losses the lasat few quarters. I know the yen plays a big part, but even taking that out, they still lost money. No denying that. Next quarter should tell the tale, if they lost that much again, they are predicting that they will not, it could be trouble.

[Death]

In October 2007 all stock prices were unusually high. In one months time Microsoft went from $30 to $36 which is too significant a leap for such little time. The Dow at the time was at a record high 14,000 points . When the bubble burst all stocks dropped about 1/2 in value which was directly online with the Dow. The Dow has recovered about half of what it lost. Microsoft stock is sitting just below $31 which is the realistic value it held prior to October 2007.

When was this article written? The facts can be easily checked within minutes online.

-Death

[likedamaster]

Seems like even Journalists don't do their homework these days.

[Half-Mafia]

apart from the 360 is MS good at doing anything else.

like it that article

google beat them
apple beat them

[BumpFrankie]

True that both Google and Apple are beating Microsoft in the search and MP3 markets, but dont forget they both started years before Microsoft did. Things like these tend to stick to "generations." The generation now will, of course, naturally mention Google when talking about a search engine, and also mention iPod when talking about an MP3 player. They just dont know the difference and only recognize them by the brand names that they hold. Microsoft loves to compete and are actually doing quite well at it. The Zune, of course, doesnt have nearly the install base as Apples iPod, but they are actaully doing pretty good thanks to the godlike Zune HD. Bing is also quite a decent and pretty looking search engine. Just looking at a white page with an childy artistic Google on it definetely gets bland. Bing takes gorgeous pictures and has a great layout of other features. Not to mention their marketing campaign for Bing is just hilarious and brilliant. So dont count Microsoft out yet, they just started and definetely have more to come.

[Sir Ken_Kutaragi]

...Banned from xBox LIVE in 2010!!! ;-D

"Microsoft stock has dropped by nearly 50 percent" HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!! ;-D

[red2tango]

GTA DLC sales must've made things even worse. How many million dollars down the drain?

[No FanS Land]

approx. 50million for the exclusive deal, however how much profit was taken back? Nobody's speaking on that one.

[Gamer71]

...just another BS article, with a title used ENTIRELY for getting hits. Apparently none of the fanboys/MS detractors above bothered reading the article. There's no proof Ballmer's getting fired....the author even provides reasons at the end why it likely WON'T happen.

[bligmerk]

Ballmer is definitely going to come under stock holder examination soon.

Look at the article. Vista was just a botched attempt at trying to make Windows more secure (FAIL!). Bing, another copycat to get some kind of Search that works (FAIL!). Zune, another copycat to challenge Ipod (FAIL!). Windows Mobile, which MS was ahead in and only theirs to lose to Droid, Iphone and Blackberry (FAIL!).

The only reason MS stock has been staying flat is they have been buying back huge amounts. Everybody used to talk about how much cash MS had. That is so 2000, when they had $50 billion in cash. They are down to less than $25 billion in cash, still a huge amount as far as American corporation cash balances go, but they still are planning to buy back more stock plus it looks like a multi-billion dollar deal with Yahoo is closing (about $7 billion).

Ballmer has been riding on Gate's coat tails and has tumbled backwards off them. He is probably one of the least imaginative and creative people around, much less a CEO. MS is in no danger of going away soon but it is approaching the level of dull blandness that Ballmer represents so well.