Five years of Ballmer--the effect on Microsoft

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becoming CEO," Rosoff said. "There's a lot of stuff that would have happened anyway that Microsoft would have had to react to regardless of who was CEO."

One of the busiest areas for Microsoft during the Ballmer tenure has been the legal front. When Gates first detailed his new career plans, Microsoft was dealing with news that the U.S. Department of Justice was considering a proposal to break up the software maker to resolve the antitrust case pending against it. A trial judge ordered such a breakup, but Microsoft had that overruled on appeal and eventually worked out a landmark settlement with the Department of Justice.

Since then, Ballmer and general counsel Brad Smith have been working to resolve many of the company's legal headaches, settling with rivals such as Sun Microsystems and AOL Time Warner and reaching deals to settle a number of consumer class-action lawsuits.

"It's sort of a way to minimize risk rather than fighting things to the end and ending up with some sort of catastrophic decision," Rosoff said.

Rosoff sees the settlements as part of a broader trend that has marked the Ballmer years. "Under Ballmer, the company has become a little more conservative," Rosoff said.

Back to its roots
In the late 1990s, Microsoft was investing billions in cable and telecommunications companies and pouring its own development resources in a number of areas, including its MSN Internet service and a range of consumer Web services.

"They are again really focused on selling software," Rosoff said. "Part of that is Ballmer's legacy--he knows where the money is coming from."

At the same time, Microsoft has continued to diversify its technology portfolio and extend its reach into the IT market. It has moved into new areas such as enterprise software and has cast itself as a major player in the home entertainment industry via the launch of its Xbox video game console and other media-oriented products. The company is currently moving aggressively into the PC security software space; it launched a beta version of its first entry into the antispyware market earlier this month, and it detailed plans to introduce antivirus software applications later this year.

As for Gates, the shift gave him more time to spend on technical projects, but in some ways there has still not been enough Gates to go around.

In the early days, nearly all products went through a "Bill review," Rosoff said. Now only some projects find their way onto Gates' plate.

"It's harder to get in front of Gates than it used to be," Rosoff said. Gates has been most active in a few key projects, he said, including the Tablet PC and Longhorn, the company's next version of Windows. Even with all of Gates' attention, though, Longhorn fell behind schedule and had to be significantly scaled back.

On a personal level, Gates has continued to expand his considerable philanthropic efforts via the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which holds claim to an endowment of about $27 billion and has contributed to everything from relief efforts surrounding last month's tsunami in South East Asia to efforts to improve the IT resources in the world's education systems. Recognized as the world's richest man, with a net worth of about $46.6 billion, Gates has also transformed his image from that of a sometimes arrogant and aloof individual to a kind of polished media darling.

5 years of idiotic comments

Like Bush,his only positive contribution has been as a clown to laugh at.

[preraksanghvi]

Mentioned stock price reduced due to stock split!

The article mentioned that the stock price has foundered from $48 when Gates retired to around $27. He doesn't mention that there has been a 2:1 stock split!! Microsoft's shares are still a major success. This author should do his research before publishing.

[Al Johnsons]

stock split

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[Foggy]

Same old Same old

Ballmer, Gates, what's the difference, they are both of a culture of greed. As I had just comment on the whole issue of Apple's new Mini, think what Microsoft would be like today if Steve Jobs and crew had decided to license out THEIR operating system to other computer manufacturers in the 1980s. Could imagine for a second that Microsoft product would go out with all of the problems we have seen for decades now. Quality Control would rule and tech support would be free and last for the lifetime of the product.

Suddenly now there is little ****** in the Microsoft armor with Linux, Firefox and now an inexpensive Apple computer. If the powers to be in Apple could come to their senses and finally license out their OS, and all Apple computer could significantly drop in price, then you would really see a change in the Microsoft mentality, but for now it's the same old same old.

Culture of greed? Are you serious?

Microsoft is the world's largest charitable donor per capita. It's employees donated over 30 million dollars to charity this year alone.

Gates donated his entire $3 billion from the one-time dividend to charity.

How many open-source people have that kind of charitable donation record?

Grow up and get a life, *******.

[Richie]

Ed Ed

iF YOU HAVE THE APPLE VS PC ARGUEMENT TO TALK ABOUT, NOTHING CONSTRUCTIVE TO ADD PLEASE DON'T WRITE YOU HAVE NOTHING TO ADD TOO THE ALREADY WORN OUT ARGUMENT. JOBS IS TOO CHEAP AND THINKS HIS PRODUCTS ARE SUPEROR TO ANY PC. SORRY ED, 95 PERCENT OF THE COMPUTERS OUT THERE ARE PC BECAUSE WE CAN AFFORD THEM. APPLE IS A FINE MACHINE AND SHOULD BE CHEAP'R TO BUY. THAT IS FROM A MAN WHO HAS BEEN IN COMPUTERS SINCE DOS 3.1 AND STAYED WITH THEM BECAUSE THEY WERE "AFFORDABLE". PLUS YOU COULD BUY PARTS FOR IT "EVERYWHERE" AND AFFORD IT.

[dejo]

thanks for the caps... not!

stop yelling. it's hurting my eyes.