Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says goodbye emotionally and with his favourite song. And it's not, "On the good ship, Lollipop".

'Crazy' Steve Ballmer, the food of many a blog and mine included, departs Microsoft as CEO. He says goodbye to 13,000 Microsoft employees in Seattle after 13 years at the helm but 33 years at the business.

'Crazy' because of his style of presentation and if you search him on this blog, you'll get the drift. This goodbye one, is actually tame in comparison.

Fairly emotionally he says it too and it's hard not to feel for the man. Despite it all, it's a tear jerker until that is, he ends with a song. A song of his choosing that says it all up for him. His favourite song.

Jennifer Warnes "Time of my life" from 'Dirty Dancing'. Jesus. But that kind of sums him up.

Wonder what Movie song will Bill Gates choose when he goes? Answers on a postcard but I'm guessing..... "Working 9 to 5".

Microsoft pays 7 Billion for Nokia. It feels like 1997.

In one of his last great acts, 'Crazy' Steve Ballmer, the Microsoft CEO has agreed to buy Nokia, for about 4.6 billion stg/7 billion us dollars. 

Nokia, the one time Finnish world leader in mobile phones, has worked with Microsoft since 2011 on the Lumia phone. More importantly perhaps, former Microsoft executive, Stephen Elop and current Nokia CEO, was tipped to replace Ballmer.

So is this case of getting a new Microsoft CEO with the company? Buy one, get one free?

It's yet another Microsoft deal that seems on the surface, "bizarre". They all do at first and then when you reflect....well, they all still do.

Firstly Microsoft already has working relationships with other hardware manufacturers, notably Samsung, who'll see this as competitive. A huge conflict of interest anyway.

Secondly a price tag of nearly 7 billion usd seems high for a company that had its stock recently at 'junk status' and frankly, that has little brand status remaining in the smartphone market. All to be paid in cash.

Thirdly, 32,000 employees come with it. That's a big, huge ongoing cost and basically increases the Microsoft workforce by a third.

As one blogger put it, "This would be the deal of the year....if it was 1997" Another suggesting they should buy AOL and Betamax next. In other words, it's all a bit late and a surprising concept for Microsoft to tackle Apple/Samsung mobile dominance, now. That game, one would have thought, is well and truly over.

And you know what? Microsoft just do things and leave them there. Perhaps like the Skype acquisition, there just isn't, a plan.

Here's Ballmer note to staff about the Nokia buy;

From: Steve Ballmer
To: MS FTEs
Date: Sep. 2, 8:00 PM PDT (Sep. 3, 6:00 AM EET)
Subject: Accelerating Growth

We announced some exciting news today: We have entered into an agreement to purchase Nokia’s Devices & Services business, which includes their smartphone and mobile phone businesses, their award-winning design team, manufacturing and assembly facilities around the world, and teams devoted to operations, sales, marketing and support.

For Microsoft, this is a bold step into the future and the next big phase of the transformation we announced on July 11.

We are very excited about the proposal to bring the best mobile device efforts of Microsoft and Nokia together. Our Windows Phone partnership over the past two and half years has yielded incredible work - the stunning Lumia 1020 is a great example. Our partnership has also yielded incredible growth. In fact, Nokia Windows Phones are the fastest-growing phones in the smartphone market.

Now is the time to build on this momentum and accelerate our share and profits in phones. Clearly, greater success with phones will strengthen the overall opportunity for us and our partners to deliver on our strategy to create a family of devices and services for individuals and businesses that empower people around the globe at home, at work and on the go, for the activities they value most. 

We have laid out Microsoft’s strategic rationale for this transaction in a presentation that I encourage you to read.

This is a smart acquisition for Microsoft, and a good deal for both companies. We are receiving incredible talent, technology and IP. We’ve all seen the amazing work that Nokia and Microsoft have done together. 

Given our long partnership with Nokia and the many key Nokia leaders that are joining Microsoft, we expect a smooth transition and great execution. 

As is always the case with an acquisition, the first priority is to keep driving through close, which we expect in the first quarter of 2014, following approval by Nokia’s shareholders, regulatory approvals, and other closing conditions. 

But I also know people will have some questions about what happens post-close. While details aren’t final, here is what we know, and how we’re generally approaching integration:

1. Stephen Elop will be coming back to Microsoft, and he will lead an expanded Devices team, which includes all of our current Devices and Studios work and most of the teams coming over from Nokia, reporting to me.
2. Julie Larson-Green will continue to run the Devices and Studios team, and will be focused on the big launches this fall including Xbox One and our Surface enhancements. Julie will be joining Stephen’s team once the acquisition closes, and will work with him to shape the new organization.
3. As part of the acquisition, a number of key engineering leaders will be joining Microsoft from Nokia, reporting to Stephen in his new capacity:
	· Jo Harlow, who will continue to lead the Smart Devices team
	· Timo Toikkanen, who will continue to lead the Mobile Phones team
	· Stefan Pannenbecker, who will lead Design
	· Juha Putkiranta, who will lead the integration effort on Nokia’s behalf
4. Regarding the sales team, we plan to keep the Nokia field team, led by Chris Weber, intact and as the nexus of the devices sales effort, so that we can continue to build sales momentum. After the deal closes, Chris and his team will be placed under Kevin Turner. We will develop a single integrated team that is selling to operators, and there may be other integration opportunities that we can pursue. Kevin will work with Chris Weber and Chris Capossela to make those plans.
5. Our operating system team under Terry Myerson will continue unchanged, with a mission of supporting both first-party and third-party hardware innovation. We are committed to working with partners, helping them build great products and great businesses on our platform, and we believe this deal will increase our partner value proposition over time. The established rhythms and ways of working between Terry and his team and the incoming Nokia team will serve us well to ensure that we do not disrupt our building momentum.
6. We are planning to integrate all global marketing under Tami Reller and Mark Penn. It is very important that we pursue a unified brand and advertising strategy as soon as possible.
7. Finance, Legal, HR, Communications, DX / Evangelism, Customer Care and Business Development will integrate functionally at Microsoft. Sourcing, customer logistics and supply chain will be part of Stephen’s Devices organization. ICM / IT will also integrate functionally for traditional IT roles. We will need to work through the implications for factory systems given the differing manufacturing processes and systems at both Nokia and Microsoft.
8. We plan to pursue a single set of supporting services for our devices, and we will figure out how to combine the great Nokia efforts into our Microsoft services as we go through the integration process.
9. There are no significant plans to shift where work is done in the world as we integrate, so we expect the Nokia teams to stay largely in place, geographically.
10. Tom Gibbons will lead the integration work for Microsoft.

While today’s announcement is big news, we have to stay heavily focused on running the current business. We have a huge fall and holiday season ahead of us, so we need to execute flawlessly and continue to drive our business forward. I have no doubt we will.

Steve

Microsoft's 'Crazy Steve' to retire. Here's the video that explains why he's called crazy.

Want to know why he's called Crazy Steve Ballmer? Have a look at the video above. If it's not playing, you'll find it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsboPUjrGc

So there you have it, the CEO who gave me more blog space than any other, is about to retire at 57 and "within 12 months" or, "when a successor is found". Whichever is quicker. 

Microsoft's "transition" (according to them) to "a device and service company", meant if he didn't go now, they wouldn't have a CEO longer term to oversee this "new direction" (their words).

"Crazy" Steve Ballmer.

I wrote about the awful practices at Microsoft on his watch exposed by Vanity Fair here http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/07/vanity-fairs-expose-of-microsoft-and.html and again here http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/07/vanity-fair-august-article-to-add-to.html

The poor performances and launches here http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/07/microsoft-launches-office-2013-and.html

And at the time that he slammed the Iphone never mind, as you'll see in my blog, his dismissing of the Android. If it's not playing it's here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U

Still, as you'll see from the top video on this blog, he'll be missed in his own way. Seemingly though, perhaps not by the markets.

Following the announcement today, shares have jumped. 
Up 9%.

Microsoft under constant pressure. New commercial here, focuses on nostalgia, the Microsoft of old. Will marketing like this work?

Microsoft are under pressure. Basically they found themselves the leaders, in the wrong market - PC's - and having a dominant position didn't help as PC sales tumbled. So they've tried to re-invent themselves without a product innovator (a Gates or a Jobs) at the helm and rather have the most peculiar salesman, Crazy Steve Ballmer, instead.

Search him on this blog and you'll see the videos and you'll see what I mean. Enough said.

Their foray into Windows 8 recently doesn't seem exactly to have set the world on fire and their 'Surface Tablet' has contributed to strong revenue in the last quarter to December no doubt. But what of the future and where they're going?

They plead for their relevance today by promoting their past. In other words, use nostalgia.

"We're the brand that's always been here", "We're the brand of establishment, of trust", Remember us? That kinda' thing and in that way, hope to jolt happy memories from former Microsoft users (which we all were) into thinking, you know what...they were there at the start for me. Aaaahh. 

But it will work too. The commercial is nice and clean with viral potential as we all do a "do ya remember that!" and pass it onto our friends.

It's very brand rather than substance and targets children of the 90's. The endline, "you grew up...so did we" is a direct plea.

The final copyline "Reconnect with the new Internet Explorer" establishes trust around a thing we all knew - IE.

What it will do is to help 'trial' and get people to take another fond look at Microsoft but that has to be followed by substance - by relevant, useful product. And that's the problem. 

Advertising can get people to try a product again, but only once. The worry is, that it's exactly because Microsoft has nothing to say, that they chose this route. When you've nothing say, talk about past glories.

And they'll be found out.

Microsoft's Windows 8. Not delivering? Key moment in the life of a one-time giant.

The critical launch of Windows 8 for Microsoft didn't deliver the key bounce it expected, or so it would seem. Reports on Mashable indicate sales are actually down - 21% against 2011 numbers, since the October launch. Whilst it doesn't include sales of their new Surface Tablet and of course, holiday sales are ahead of them, it's still not a good sign. Especially since it's more than three years since the launch of Windows 7.

The advent of Windows 8 was expected to lift the market and Microsoft are really needing that bounce. Although during the week, Microsoft have blogged that they sold 40 million Windows 8 licences, this raised eyebrows on the retail reality ground and without detail of those sales, it's not clear what it means. Some of these will have been sold to hardware partners initially rather than sold on to users; some of them sold into Microsoft's own stores; some have been sold at a low price initially, so what will happen when the price goes up; and so on.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (pictured) has said that their new Surface tablet sales have been "modest".

The PC market is of course, pretty dire at the moment anyway and one only has to look at HP awful numbers to see that, never mind Dell's continuing struggle too. The real growth here is in other multi devices (which Windows 8 does straddle to a point) and notably in business, a key Microsoft territory, where Executives now operate 2+ devices.

The PC issue explains why Microsoft isn't the power it once was. It had/has a monopoly practically, but in the wrong things.

Fundamentally too, having rumoured to have spent 1.5 billion usd on the Windows 8 launch, it hasn't had cut-through. Most of us are simply not aware of it unlike Microsoft launches of the past. So Marketing hasn't delivered I think.

The next few weeks will give a clearer picture but the retail buzz is not good and in that I'd trust. It is a critical juncture for the company, so we'll see.

In a lot of ways, make or break.

Microsoft launch XBox Music. Too little, too late. Again.

 
Microsoft, who are famed for doing nothing really, have just unveiled their X Box music service, called.....XBox Music!

It's a competitor to Itunes with music streaming (30 milion tracks), downloading and indeed, Radio. 

It's free if you'll tolerate the Ads or it's a subscription service under 10 usd a month which allows you unlimited steaming which at the moment, is designed for Windows 8 only (so too bad if you're on Android or Mac) but that's all to come shortly. Equally too, a cloud based locker is in the pipeline for storage (and stats during the week on cloud services show it's really being adopted).

The purchase of songs operates exactly like Amazon or Itunes and it's ideally targeted at mobile devices - notably The Surface tablet which has caused such controversy.

Although they did previously have a music service called Zune, it was discontinued as it wasn't competing. 

I'm not a fan at all of Steve Ballmer CEO or of Microsoft.
They seem to do everything poorly and get to everything late without any innovation but rather, a "me too" service.

By putting commercial people in charge (Ballmer was a salesman whereas Gates was a techy) rather than techies, they lost their way. Not a mistake that Apple made with Jobs at the helm.

So here too is another example of a music service that's late and rolled out in a limited way - not fully thought through.

It seems to me that Microsoft needs a shake up if it's ever going to reachieve its glory days as world-dominant. Today, Apples's Iphone business alone, is bigger than Microsoft.

This launch won't make the slightest change in that.

Microsoft launches Office 2013 and announces it's first EVER loss. 492 million us dollar loss. CEO Steve Ballmer hangs on.

Microsoft really warrants a blog of its own, given that it's in the news so often now. And none of it good.


On Friday it has reported its first loss, ever. 
492 million usd of a loss versus a 5.87 billion profit a year ago.


Hot on the heels of the controversial acquisition of Yammer in June by Steve Ballmer which left everyone scratching their heads. 1.2 billion? You're kidding? http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/06/microsoft-acquires-yammer-for-12.html


Then the controversy about Steve Ballmer work practices in a Vanity Fair article which caused rumours before it was published http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/07/vanity-fair-august-article-to-add-to.html


And worse problems once it was http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/07/vanity-fairs-expose-of-microsoft-and.html


And the NBC divorce last week http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/07/microsoft-and-nbc-divorce-from-msnbc-it.html


All of this in less than 4 weeks and yet, CEO Steve Ballmer hangs on in there. Now comes the loss. 


Critically it's a watershed, because it's the first ever - but in reality, it's a loss because of an adjustment on the ridiculous 2007, 6.2 billion usd investment in an online business, aquantive, or so Microsoft would argue. However, if you make an awful investment of 6.2 billion usd, you have to adjust for it. In making the acquisition you took the risk that it would put profits at risk.


So there's no escaping it and the headlines will be Microsofts first loss.


Windows sales too in those figures, on further analysis, weakened with a 13% drop in Q4 ending in June although an accountancy policy change has also made the drop look worse. Even allowing for that adjustment, its sales are down.


Hopes more and more being pinned on the October release of Windows 8. Although everyone is forecasting a decline and a weakening in computer sales despite the fact that insiders are saying, it's a good version. With no one to buy, it won't matter in some ways.


This week Steve Ballmer also launched the latest version of Office (called 'Office 2013' surprisingly) which runs on around 90% of business pcs with a new focus on touchscreen and social interaction contributing more than half of microsoft's profits (or losses). So it's important and it was well received. 


The range of applications - Outlook, Excel, Word, PPT and one Note have been updated and integrated through the Skydrive (Microsofts cloud service) for instant updating. Skype is fully integrated too.


Definitely, the widely held view that this was a good launch and a step up. Weakening computer sales though, is outside of Microsoft's control and the deluge of bad publicity is gaining momentum. 


In particular, a loss, is a turning point for this money making machine. It's hard to think of anything else that could put more pressure on CEO Steve Ballmer. 


I'm actually amazed he's still standing this weekend and clearly, has a lot of friends from within, notably Gates who appointed him in the first place and at the time, surprisingly.


Microsoft is now a company in decline and as Steve Jobs said, it will remain so with Ballmer at the helm. It was the great Internet company, the great software company, the great browser supplier and great at a lot of things.


Apple's iphone does more business than the whole of Microsoft now.
It ain't what it was, anymore.


Hard to imagine that investors aren't beginning to think, it's time to get out.
Very few will be piling in.

Microsoft and NBC divorce from MSNBC. It puts Microsoft in the news. Again.

Microsoft made more news today by pulling out of its 1996 joint venture that was MSNBC.com (Microsoft + NBC News, now owned by Comcast) with NBC buying Microsoft's 50% share.

Whilst both companies have said they want to get on with their own online news agenda, it would seem that Microsoft have its own news agenda and plans.

Up to now, Microsoft for example had to feature the news feed on all of its inventory and it's well believed that NBC's "liberal" (pro-Obama) agenda was not well liked. NBC always sees itself as the opposite viewing choice to pro-Republican Fox News. It also meant that Microsoft couldn't offer other alternative news feeds, or indeed its own, exactly as AOL/Huff Post has done or The CNN/Mashable alliance/acquisition.

It's widely believed that this represents another poor Microsoft online venture (they've lost 10 billion usd online in recent years) having paid 220 million usd into it, it's believed it received 300 million usd back (just about the capital + interest). Equally of course, the corrollary is true - this allows NBC News to supply its content to other non-Microsoft websites and the divorce is being seen as "amicable".

Although to be fair, in 2002, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is credited with saying that they shouldn't have gone ahead with the deal.

According to the NBC site announcement the "focus on hard news and original reporting would remain the same" although we know of Microsoft plans to launch a new news service in the Autumn.

The joint venture was considered one of the most profitable news sites in America by "the trade".

It is being viewed as a move by NBC to take out Microsoft and given that they're the buyers, that seems to make sense.

Given too all of the negative publicity regarding Microsoft (as you'll read plenty regrettably, in this blog alone http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/07/vanity-fairs-expose-of-microsoft-and.html), the timing is possibly co-incidental or perhaps, commercial.

It could be a simple matter that NBC don't want to bet on a brand that's diminishing and that makes sense.

It also makes sense that NBC News are gearing up for a better news service following The AOL/Huff Post live announcement and when they're facing one hell of a competitor on August 13 and they want to plan for that.

http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/07/huffington-post-live-worlds-biggest.html

News gathering is the hottest topic of the moment http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/search/label/rupert%20murdoch as of course is the whole role of citizen journalism http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/07/citizen-journalism-is-spreading.html

It'll be interesting to see how this divorce develops - on both sides - but also how the whole news content online flourishes and how TV particularly suffers. we know the demand for online news has already impacted negatively on traditional TV viewing.

Let's get ready to rumble.

Vanity Fair's expose of Microsoft and CEO Ballmer, is out. Get it and be horrified about their downfall.

                                  

You may have been familiar with my blog of July 5 http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/07/vanity-fair-august-article-to-add-to.html or indeed you may know of the controversy surrounding Microsoft.

Largely, it's a company that's really under the microscope because it has lost its way after Bill Gates departed the company. Apple's iphone business alone, does more business than the whole of Microsoft.

In particular, the current CEO Steve Ballmer, who is there officially until 2016 anyway, carries a lot of responsibility since the demise of the once great Microsoft, happened squarely on his watch.

Ballmer is a controversial character making ridiculous predictions about the demise of the Iphone and indeed the Ipad (you can see those interview videos on my original blog). Nonsensical predictions that he gets wrong on video and of course, haunts him now every step of the way.

He also carries himself in quite a ridiculous manner and video of him at the launch of a Microsoft conference (also on my original blog) is really cringey. Worse than that in fact.

On July 5, the controversy was furthered by the leaking of a journalistic piece on Microsoft in 'Vanity Fairs' August edition, which seemingly was to expose the cultural reason why Microsoft, under Ballmer, has lost its way.

It was to blame an inter-staff management system called 'stack ranking' - a rating system for employees. Titled "How Microsoft lost its Mojo" it's based on emails, interviews and internal documents, Vanity Fair was to expose this problem at the heart of Microsoft which it argues was mainly responsible for its lack of vision, lack of Microsoft creativity.

We were told in the snippets that we had, that the stack ranking system was corrosive and possibly the single reason for Microsoft's continued downfall. The article was considered to be explosive and one wondered if Ballmer would survive the onslaught - but I hadn't read it then because it hadn't been published. This weekend I now have.

Not only is it explosive (and excellently written) but it makes Steve Ballmer look like a buffoon. A man who gets it wrong time and time again and has now become an embarrassment to the company. "Stack ranking" gets a good mention but its not the focus we thought it was - Ballmer is.



Reporter Kurt Eichenwald says, "Ballmer's key business philosophy for Microsoft was so antiquated as to be irrelevant. The Microsoft CEO used to proclaim that it would not be first to cool, but would be first to profit -- in other words, it would be the first to make money by selling its own version of new technologies."


It includes an interesting quote from Steve Jobs - "The company (Microsoft) starts valuing the great salesmen, because they're the ones who can move the needle on revenues, not the product engineers and designers. So the salespeople end up running the company....it happened at Apple when John Sculley came in and that was my fault and it happened when Ballmer took over at Microsoft. Apple was lucky and it rebounded, but I don't think anything will change at Microsoft as long as Ballmer is running it".

He actually blamed Bill Gates for Ballmer. "Bill likes to portray himself as a man of the product, but he's really not. He's a businessperson. Winning business was more important than making great products".

Indeed.....and The Vanity Fair article blames Gates too with the fact that Microsoft had the lead on ebooks but it was stifled by Gates. They had the lead on itunes, but it was stifled by Gates. Gates appointed Ballmer.

It's really damning stuff and go out and get it.

This is too much public criticism laid squarely at the door of Ballmer and far more than I understood on July 5 for him to laugh this off. More importantly, Microsoft now appears to be a company in crisis and so uncool, it's not true. They are going one way and that's down. Their Skype acquisition is beginning to show no meaning.

I wondered then, based on what I knew, whether Ballmer would survive this very public criticism.

I have absolutely no doubt now.
Except an announcement soon.

Vanity Fair August article to add to pressure on Microsoft. CEO Steve Ballmer's window is closing.

This is Steve Ballmer. CEO of Microsoft. The man who took the reins from Bill Gates in 2009 when Gates stepped back. Hardly Steve Jobs now is he? Although I think he tries to be. I mean who came up with the track "get on your feet"? Kind of like playing "simply the best". Cringeville.


There's an awful lot of people having a go at Microsoft at the minute.
And it has to be putting immense pressure on CEO Steve Ballmer.
One wonders if he'll survive it and especially after an article in Vanity Fair due on the newsstands in August.


But they're having a go firstly, because it's the launch of Windows 8 coming up. Oh, didn't know? Exactly. And remember the excitement, the queues for 95.


Secondly, the acquisition of Yammer for 1.5 billion (yep, billion) of a company few of us ever heard of, and which earns little revenue, is being seen as a bizarre way of buying yourself onto the front pages. One way to get that Facebook/Instagram 1 billion limelight. I blogged about it here http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/06/microsoft-acquires-yammer-for-12.html


The official Microsoft announcement photo two weeks ago, did little to help things too and here it is. Steve Ballmer and the Yammer boys looking like something from the 70's rather than the new leaders in Social Media. Shocking.

As an aside, interesting too that when you go onto the Microsoft news centre and search 'Yammer' - nothing comes up. So Microsoft could do with updating their site - which for Microsoft, is pretty poor.


Thirdly, Microsoft have just taken a 6.2 billion write down this week following their disaster purchase of digital network aquantive in 2007 - then the biggest deal in Microsoft history. The 8.5bn acquisition of Sykpe by Microsoft in 2011 beat it. And what exactly have they done with Skype? Nada. Looks the same to me except with higher prices and more advertising. Vision?


But this write-down, wipes out fourth quarter earnings and that will have a stock/investor issue, adding more pressure.


The acquisition was seen at the time, as a response to Google's acquisition of Doubleclick (with which I was involved in a small way in Ireland) because the Microsoft move came only a month later. Kind of a "anything you can do" thing. But one huge 6.2 billion loss.


Fourthly, the success of Apple has been one-in-the-eye for Microsoft and continues to be. Apple's iphone division alone is worth more than Microsoft. Here's the genius Steve Ballmer in 2007 on the iphone. "500 dollars for a phone? You're kidding".

I could post the video where he laughs off the ipad or indeed this next one where he's not a fan either of the Android phone from 2011. Jesus.

And of course he teamed up with Nokia...who've recently had their ratings cut to "junk status".

So "visionary" doesn't exactly spring to mind and the company is slowly disappearing into a morass. Yes I know about Bing and Xbox but this was THE dominant player worldwide that now is being, well, just eroded. 


But lastly, the real crowning glory this week is an article in Vanity Fair August edition which seems to slam work practices at Microsoft and makes the company totally uncool. This sort of publicity might be the straw that broke it because it will be hard for Ballmer to escape it. 


Sometimes publicity is the killer blow because it's so public.


Titled 'Microsoft's lost decade' it's written by well regarded scribbler, Kurt Eichenwald.


It's not on the newsstands yet, but Geekwire have seen a full copy and refer to it as "epic". In other words, explosive.


Forbes have referred to it as "a devastatingly destructive management technique at the heart of Microsoft’s problems" and others are calling the exposure "Microsoft's downfall".


Techcrunch don't have the story because when they asked for a preview, they were asked for a fax number to "fax it on over". Honestly. And they've written a good humorous piece on that......
http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/03/can-someone-send-techcrunchs-fax-number-to-vanity-fair/


The controversy, supported by interviews and emails collected, is about management style and creativity. Or lack of.


It's based around a work system for employees in Microsoft called 'stack ranking' where employees are rated from good to poor. And according to Eichenwald that meant that "Every current and former Microsoft employee I interviewed—every one—cited stack ranking as the most destructive process inside of Microsoft, something that drove out untold numbers of employees.” 


“If you were on a team of 10 people, you walked in the first day knowing that, no matter how good everyone was, 2 people were going to get a great review, 7 were going to get mediocre reviews, and 1 was going to get a terrible review,” says a former software developer. “It leads to employees focusing on competing with each other rather than competing with other companies.”


Which could well be the reason why the company under Ballmer, flounders.
Basically, it crippled the company and stifled innovation.


And from what I know it seemed to be a dreadful place to work which in itself is bizarre given the 'great places to work' awards Microsoft have achieved. I always wondered about those awards though, always did. I saw companies winning them who I knew to be dreadful.


But they were big companies who'd always take a table or two at the Awards dinner.


We'll see what happens when Vanity Fair comes out.
Watch out for the noise and watch out for Steve Ballmer.
Except it to be huge.
His window is closing. (sorry).