Forum Post: CEO Pay: A Rather Revealing Retrospective
Posted 11 years ago on Oct. 15, 2013, 7:36 p.m. EST by grimwomyn
(35)
from New York, NY
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
On Wall Street, they’re giving Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer the bum’s rush.
Ballmer has just announced he’ll soon retire. After his announcement, Microsoft’s shares shot up 7 percent. The wise guys on Wall Street obviously can’t wait to see Ballmer go. And neither can business pundits. Ballmer’s 13 years at Microsoft’s summit, they seem to agree, have been a huge disappointment.
Plenty of evidence certainly does exist to back up that appraisal. Microsoft, once a high-tech pacesetter, has become a second-tier presence in the hot new frontiers of mobile and cloud computing. Microsoft’s share price, under Ballmer’s watch, has dropped by about a third.
Meanwhile, Ballmer himself has done fabulously well. Since 2000, the value of his own personal Microsoft stock stash has jumped — after years of lavish executive rewards — by more than $3 billion.
Few business observers believe Ballmer merits all these multiple billions. But Ballmer’s pals feel he’s performed just fine. After all, they note, Microsoft annual revenues have almost quadrupled on his watch.
Read the Rules