Monkey boy steve ballmer biography

Steven Anthony "Steve" Ballmer (born March 24, 1956) has been the former chief executive officer of Microsoft Corporation since January 2000 to February, 4 2014. As of 2010, he is one of the richest people in the world with a personal wealth estimated at US$14.5 billion in 2010.

Early life[]

Ballmer was born in Detroit, Michigan to a Swiss-American father and a Jewish-American mother whose family came from the Eastern European city of Pinsk (today in Belarus). He grew up in Farmington Hills, Michigan. In 1973, he graduated from Detroit Country Day School, a private college preparatory school in Beverly Hills, Michigan, and now sits on its board of directors. In 1977, he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a B.A. in mathematics and economics. While in college, Ballmer managed the football team, worked on The Harvard Crimson newspaper as well as the Harvard Advocate, and lived down the hall from fellow sophomore Bill Gates. He then worked for two years as an assistant product manager at Procter & Gamble, where he shared an office with Jeffrey R. Immelt, who would later become CEO of General Electric. In 1980, he dropped out from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business to join Microsoft.

Microsoft career[]

Ballmer joined Microsoft on June 11, 1980 and became Microsoft's 24th employee, the first business manager hired by Gates. Ballmer loved working in Microsoft. He was initially offered a salary of $50,000 as well as a percentage of ownership of the company. When Microsoft was incorporated in 1981, Ballmer owned 8 percent of the company. He has headed several divisions within Microsoft including "Operating Systems Development", "Operations", and "Sales and Support." In January 2000, he was officially named chief executive officer. As CEO Ballmer handled company finances, however Gates still retained cont

Steve Ballmer has never quite lived down his infamous “Monkey Boy” dance in which he screamed, shouted, and danced around onstage, resembling an escaped mental patient on illegal amphetamines. It’s been used as a symbol of everything wrong with Ballmer’s leadership at Microsoft. But now Businessweek says those days are past: Microsoft has its mojo back and Steve Ballmer is no longer Mr. Monkey Boy.

The magazine has a lengthy cover article titled “No More Mr. Monkey Boy” whose premise is that under Ballmer’s leadership, Microsoft has “cooler tech, more energy, higher profit.” The magazine hits the newsstands on Friday, but you can read it online now.

It’s a lengthy but worthwhile read. Its premise is that Ballmer has “rebooted” Microsoft, giving it a chance on the consumer side in the smartphone market with the revamped version of Windows Phone, and a “lead position in the battle for the connected living room” with the Xbox and Kinect, as well as a smart acquisition in Skype. On the enterprise side, it points to Microsoft headway in the cloud, and points out that “Microsoft’s data-center software division had sales of $17.1 billion last year; if that unit were a standalone software company, it would be one of the top five in the world.” The article also touts the upcoming version of Windows 8.

The piece isn’t all laudatory, and notes that Microsoft may not be able to stay relevant in mobile and other future technologies. And it quotes Steve Jobs in Walter Isaacson’s biography saying, Microsoft has “become mostly irrelevant…I don’t think anything will change at Microsoft as long as Ballmer is running it.”

Overall, I’d say it’s one of the more balanced pieces I’ve seen about Ballmer and Microsoft, although I’m not as convinced as the aut

1. He’s very rich.

There are lots more billions where those came from. Ballmer, who was CEO of software maker Microsoft Corp. until February, is worth $19 billion, according to Bloomberg. That makes him the 39th richest person in the world. The Harvard grad, who majored in math, is still Microsoft’s largest individual stockholder, with more shares than co-founder Bill Gates.

2. He may not stay in his courtside seat.

No executive was more enthusiastic about his company. Former sales chief Ballmer was known to high-five customers at Microsoft Store openings, and he gained the nickname “Monkey Boy” in tech circles for an over-the-top leaping, whooping performance at a sales presentation. (How enthusiastic? Google “Steve Ballmer goes crazy.”) That competitive streak sometimes led him astray, as when Ballmer gave Apple’s iPhone “no chance” of gaining prominence. Oops.

3. He’s got thick skin.

In his 14 years as CEO, Ballmer tripled Microsoft’s revenues. But he also took a lot of heat for failed products such as the Zune music player and the Vista software program, and for an undelivered promise to “win the Web.” In his biography, Apple’s Steve Jobs said of Ballmer’s Microsoft, “They’ve become mostly irrelevant.” Bad referee calls probably won’t carry quite the same sting.

4. He’s long wanted into the NBA.

Ballmer, according to the Seattle Times, is an avid basketball fan who was a regular at hometown Seattle SuperSonics games. He was part of an investor group that tried to keep the Sonics from relocating to Oklahoma City in 2008 (where they’re now known as the Thunder). Two years ago, Ballmer was part of another effort to build a new arena and lure an NBA team to town. But apparently he has no plans to move the Clippers, telling the Wall Street Journal earlier this month that to do so would be “value destructive.” Yes,

Other industry leaders believe that Ballmer's oversight saw Microsoft become a company that depended on people needing its products, rather than wanting them.

"He pretty much oversaw the decline of Microsoft," says Jim McKelvey, co-founder of mobile payments firm Square.

"Microsoft continues to slide into more irrelevance. It's a big company, there's a lot of change that's needed there.

"I think they were very dependent on a monopolistic control. When the internet made operating systems less relevant, Microsoft could no longer force mediocre products on people."

Under Ballmer's leadership, Microsoft tripled its revenues and doubled profits. He himself will leave with a personal wealth estimated to be $15.2bn.

Investors, meanwhile, are optimistic - shares in the firm jumped by 9% at the news.

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