ballmer

SAN FRANCISCO--Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer isn't one to mince words, and he certainly offered many candid opinions while speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit this evening.

Here's a rundown of Ballmer's thoughts on a number of topics involving Microsoft and its competitors:

Bing Bing still has a small slice of the search market share pie, but Ballmer stood strong that Bing has seen a nice rise in the last few years.

"We went from the number three player to the number two player," Ballmer said happily, attributing part of that rise to the search … Read more

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, never one to hold back his feelings, today told the audience at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco that he was grateful he failed to buy Yahoo for $44 billion back in 2008.

"Sometimes you are lucky," he said in an interview with John Battelle, whose Federated Media puts on the conference. "Ask any CEO who might have bought something before the market crashed (in 2008)... Hallelujah! Putting everything else aside, the market fell apart.... Sometimes you're lucky."

Ballmer did say, however, that Yahoo has value and that he … Read more

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer really wants to sell you on Windows 8, touting features ranging from a new lock screen that still shares updates to the benefits of the controversial Metro user interface.

In a demo and discussion of the new OS at the Dell World conference on Friday, Ballmer focused on four key features, according to a report from Information Week, though some of it was ground that's already been covered.

A new lock screen that pops up when you're away from your PC displays a "peaceful mountain view." And though the OS is locked, … Read more

Microsoft's board decided to pay Chief Executive Steve Ballmer a $682,500 bonus on top of his $682,500 salary in the fiscal year that ended June 30, concluding that Ballmer met, but did not exceed, his performance targets for the year.

The pay was disclosed today in Microsoft's annual proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ballmer's compensation plan allows for the bonus to be two times his salary, if the board deems his performance worthy.

In the filing, the board gave Ballmer credit for the successful product launches of the Kinect motion-sensing controller for the Xbox as well as the cloud-based Office 365. The board also noted "enhancements" to Windows Azure and Bing, as well as "continued progress positioning the company as a leader in the cloud and cloud-based infrastructure."

Ballmer also benefited from the company's partnerships with Facebook and Nokia. And the board noted the company's "significant progress in development of the next generation of Windows." The company previewed Windows 8 at its Build conference in Anaheim, Calif., last month. And last, the board credited Ballmer for his work in the pending acquisition of videoconferencing pioneer Skype.

The board also highlighted a few misfires that prevented Ballmer from receiving his total potential bonus. It pointed to "lower than expected initial sales of Windows Phone 7." Ballmer said as much during the company's financial analyst meeting in September, noting: "We haven't sold quite as many probably as I would have hoped we would have sold in the first year."… Read more

ANAHEIM, Calif.--Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer made a surprise appearance today at the company's developer conference here, pitching developers on a "reimagined" Microsoft.

At the end of an hour-and-a-half presentation on Windows Server 8 and new developer tools, Ballmer stepped on stage to make the case that developers should focus their efforts on creating great programs for Windows. His key selling point: the fact that more than 350 million PCs will ship with Windows this year.

"There is no phone, (no) tablet, there is no operating system on the planet that will ship 350 million … Read more

David Einhorn, the hedge-fund manager who called for Steve Ballmer's head three months ago, just increased his stake in Microsoft.

Einhorn's Greenlight Capital reported holding 14.8 million shares of Microsoft as of June 30, according to a regulatory filing dated yesterday. That's up from 9.1 million shares Greenlight held at the end of the previous reporting period, March 31. The Wall Street Journal first reported Greenlight's increased stake.

In May, Einhorn suggested that Ballmer step aside as chief executive of Microsoft, in part, for allowing competitors to jump ahead of the software giant in … Read more

Windows 8 is set to hit the prerelease stage over the coming months, according to a blog posted yesterday by Microsoft President Steven Sinofsky.

Though the term prerelease version is a bit vague, Sinofsky is likely referring to the beta of Windows 8 since he said that the company wants to "begin an open dialogue with those of you who will be trying out the prerelease version over the coming months."

Aiming the new blog series, "Building Windows 8," at customers, developers, and users in general, Sinofsky used the post to provide tidbits of information but … Read more

Google + is making some changes, but hopefully it's only going to keep the G+ train going: estimates have it at 10 million users and on track for 20 million by this weekend. Yeah, no, really. Plus, Netflix makes a change that makes us sing and pushes you toward either DVDs or streaming, but probably not both. Plus, happy anniversary, Neptune!

Microsoft could show off a pre-beta version of Windows 8 next week at its Worldwide Partner Conference, according to WinRumors and other sources.

With WPC 2011 officially kicking off July 11, WinRumors cited a tweet on Tuesday from an account called @MSFTtm, which said that "Microsoft will release a CTP [Community Technology Preview] build of Windows 8" at the conference. Though a single tweet from an unverified source hardly makes it a done deal, WinRumors says this particular tweeter has been accurate in the past with news about Windows 8 builds.

Adding further fire to the rumors, tech … Read more