Stories related to: Steve Ballmer

Microsoft celebrated Bill Gates’ last day as a full-time employee today, the Seattle Times reports. More than 800 employees, family members and friends shared memories at the company’s corporate conference center in Redmond, Wash. CEO Steve Ballmer bid a tearful farewell to his longtime friend: "We've been given a enormous opportunity, and Bill gave us that opportunity," he told the audience. More »

Bill Gates’ departure from full-time employment at Microsoft on June 27 will end 8 contentious years in which Gates has attempted to stay onboard while nominally beneath his close friend and new CEO, Steve Ballmer. Though they built the company together, this “ambassadorial succession” produced mixed results, with Gates undermining Ballmer in front of executives, the Wall Street Journal reports. More »

Microsoft and CEO Steve Ballmer are facing a scary, new post-Bill-Gates world, Therese Poletti writes on MarketWatch. On a panel at the All Things Digital conference earlier this week, Ballmer and Gates fielded questions about Microsoft’s failed Yahoo bid and unpopular Vista operating system. “Ballmer and indeed Microsoft face many challenges on the road ahead,” comments Poletti. More »

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was in Budapest this week to give a lecture to Hungarian university students, but the talk took an unexpected turn when he was pelted with eggs. Unlike Bill Gates, who was hit in the face with a cream pie a decade ago, Ballmer was able to dodge the attack. The protester shouted that Microsoft had stolen money from the Hungarian people, hurled three eggs, and was calmly escorted out. More »

Microsoft's new offer to Yahoo includes breaking up the company and buying its search-advertising business, notions that have left Yahoo execs cold, the Wall Street Journal reports. Under the plan, Yahoo would sell its Asian assets and let Microsoft buy a minority stake in what's left of the company. More »

Though Microsoft's courtship of Yahoo came to an unhappy end, Yahoo is still open to suitors, even Microsoft—at the right price, insists CEO Jerry Yang. Yahoo is in talks with other companies about ways to boost its value, and while Yahoo isn't in a rush to sell, executives are willing to listen to any would-be buyer, Yang tells Bloomberg as he faces mounting shareholder criticism for letting the deal get away. More »

Microsoft's Yahoo bid put CEO Steve Ballmer to the test: How much would he pay to fulfill his promise to "(expletive) kill Google"? Forty-seven billion bucks was too high, but many say he'll try again—and may have a tough time convincing investors it's all cool calculation. Microsoft still lags behind Google in search advertising, and that makes Ballmer steam, the AP reports. More »

High-fives broke out at Yahoo yesterday after Microsoft revoked its buyout bid, but founder Jerry Yang and colleagues may want to hold off on celebrations, the New York Times reports. Analysts expect the stock to tank tomorrow, shareholders are mulling legal action, key workers may walk, and an alliance with Google could prove disastrous. More »

Microsoft withdrew its latest offer to buy Yahoo today after the companies' chief execs haggled over price at a Seattle meeting, the New York Times reports. Microsoft CEO Steven Ballmer offered $33 per share, but Yahoo's Jerry Yang wanted $4 per share more in the blockbuster deal. More »

Microsoft appears to be edging closer to a hostile bid for Yahoo, the Wall Street Journal reports; an announcement of the company's next move is expected today. Price will be a key factor: CEO Steve Ballmer told employees yesterday he won't pay a "dime above" what he thinks Yahoo is worth. Yahoo shareholders are looking for $35 to $37 a share; Ballmer's original offer was worth $29.48 a share at the close yesterday. More »

Microsoft's board met yesterday to discuss the next move in its bid for Yahoo but didn't make a decision, the Wall Street Journal reports. Directors have given CEO Steve Ballmer broad leeway to decide between going hostile or walking away from the bid, and insiders say it could still go either way. An announcement is expected later this week. More »

Steve Ballmer's next move on Yahoo is expected momentarily, and one option is to nominate a proxy slate for the board of directors, the Wall Street Journal reports, but hold off on making a new hostile bid for the company. Microsoft could buy time for setting a new price for Yahoo, which rejected the company's $42-billion bid, but keep the option of a hostile campaign later. More »

A failed start-up doesn't spell purgatory for entrepreneurs with the right connections, the Boston Globe reports. Take Mort Rosenthal, who struck gold in the 1980s as a software entrepreneur, only to launch two flops—one in alternative medicine, the other in cell-phone retail—with millions in lost venture capital. Now he's back in the game with a business backed by $20 million Microsoft dollars. More »

Microsoft's first quarter saw flat sales and dipping profits, all the more reason to make nice with Yahoo, Aaron Ricadela writes in BusinessWeek. Steve Ballmer has said he is ready to walk away from the attempted takeover, but with most of Microsoft's revenue coming from smaller divisions and overseas interests, his company sorely needs a big shot in the arm. More »

Microsoft won't raise its $44.6 billion takeover bid for Yahoo despite the Internet firm's strong first-quarter earnings, Bloomberg reports. "We are prepared to go forward without a merger," said CEO Steve Ballmer, who has threatened a proxy shareholder revolt to push the deal through, possibly at a lower price, if Yahoo didn’t agree to the original bid by Saturday. More »

Microsoft is testing a new product that will allow users to link data across multiple electronic devices through the internet—so the picture you took on your phone can be in the digital picture frame in your home within minutes. It’s a big step for Microsoft, which until now has resisted the “cloud computing” movement, Reuters reports. More »

Two groundbreaking Internet deals are in the works, both related to Microsoft's desire to take over Yahoo, the Wall Street Journal reports. In one, Yahoo is considering combining its online operations with Time Warner's AOL. In the other, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is in talks to join Microsoft in its bid to acquire Yahoo.  More »

Yahoo received a tepid endorsement from its second-largest shareholder yesterday as its takeover battle with suitor Microsoft continued to heat up, the Wall Street Journa l reports. Legg Mason, which holds a 7% stake in Yahoo, said it would back an independent Yahoo before it would sell its stake at a reduced price—and Microsoft's CEO "blundered" by threatening to go that route. More »

Yahoo execs fired back a response this morning to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's weekend ultimatum giving the Yahoo board a deadline of 3 weeks to avoid a hostile takeover. CEO Jerry Yang and Chairman Roy Bostock reiterated that the Microsoft offer is still too low—it has declined in value as Microsoft stock has continued to skid—but said they're still open to a sweetened deal. They accused Ballmer of being the one who's failing to negotiate. More »

Yahoo has 3 weeks to accept Microsoft’s takeover before things get hostile, Microsoft warned in a letter to Yahoo execs today. “The substantial premium reflected in our initial proposal anticipated a friendly transaction,” wrote Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who promised a proxy director battle and implied a lower sale price. “If we are forced to take an offer directly to your shareholders," Microsoft's $40 billion offer would tumble. More »