Ballmer was then promoted to President of Microsoft, a title that he held from July 1998 to February 2001, making him the de facto number two in the company to the chairman and CEO, Bill Gates. Peter Ballmer. Currently, he is the owner of the celebrated NBA team Los Angeles Clippers. Mark Lucovsky, who left for Google in 2004, alleged in a sworn statement to a Washington state court that Ballmer became enraged upon hearing that Lucovsky was about to leave Microsoft for Google, picked up his chair, and threw it across his office, and that, referring to then Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt (who had previously worked for competitors Sun and Novell), Ballmer vowed to "kill Google. [94], Following the Donald Sterling scandal in May 2014, Ballmer was the highest bidder in an attempt to purchase the Los Angeles Clippers for a reported price of $2 billion, which is the second highest bid for a sports franchise in North American sports history (after the $2.15 billion sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012). Steve Ballmer mother Beatrice Dworkin, She was a Jewish. In 2014, his family donated $50 million to the University of Oregon. [7][8], His tenure and legacy as Microsoft CEO has received mixed reception, with the company tripling sales and doubling profits, but losing its market dominance and missing out on 21st-century technology trends. [70], Ballmer hosted his last company meeting in September 2013,[71] and stepped down from the company's board of directors, in August 2014. He still drives Ford cars because his father used to work for the company" by Bobbie Johnson, "Former Microsoft CEO and LA Clippers Owner Steve Ballmer Speaks with CNBC's Josh Lipton Today", European Union Microsoft competition case, Majority team owners in the National Basketball Association, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Steve_Ballmer&oldid=1004077490, American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent, Articles with short description added by PearBOT 5, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2020, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 31 January 2021, at 23:57. Kimihiro Hoshino/Getty Images Steve Ballmer has a new … Avram Piltch, Laptop Mag; 9 Craziest Steve Ballmer Moments, William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, Inglewood Basketball and Entertainment Center, https://www.forbes.com/profile/steve-ballmer/?list=billionaires#301f20c54818, "Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months", "Microsoft Board names Satya Nadella as CEO", "How Microsoft Lost Its Mojo: Steve Ballmer and Corporate America's Most Spectacular Decline", "Steve Ballmer ends run as Microsoft's relentless salesman", "Microsoft-Chef: Vorfahren waren Schweizer, "die in Höhlen wohnten, "Business - Microsoft's Heir Apparent -- Steve Ballmer - Seattle Times Newspaper", "Steve Ballmer Biography - Microsoft CEO", "National Merit Scholarship Corporation - Scholars You May Know", "CEO Forum: Microsoft's Ballmer having a 'great time, "Microsoft chief calms investors after selling shares", "Microsoft: the ups and downs of the Ballmer era", "Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and the Parting of the Ways", "For Steve Ballmer, a lasting touch on Microsoft", "Microsoft Shops at Wal-Mart for an Operating Chief", "Microsoft's Nadella Reshapes Top Management as Turner Leaves", "Microsoft's Stock Chart Under The Ballmer Era", "Next CEO's Biggest Job: Fixing Microsoft's Culture", "Steve Ballmer and the Art of Managing a Monopoly - The New Yorker", "Microsoft Unveils New Xbox in Bid to Lead Home Entertainment", "Apple versus Microsoft: the ticker tape tells the tale", "Hedge Fund Star Einhorn Calls for Microsoft's Ballmer to Go", "Oops! [31][36] Under Ballmer's watch, "In many cases, Microsoft latched onto technologies like smartphones, touchscreens, 'smart' cars and wristwatches that read sports scores aloud long before Apple or Google did. [92], In June 2012, Ballmer was an investor in Chris R. Hansen's proposal to build a new arena in the SoDo neighborhood of Seattle and bring the SuperSonics back to Seattle. [95], On September 25, 2014, Ballmer said he would bar the team from using Apple products such as iPads, and replace them with Microsoft products. [37] Ballmer also built half a dozen new businesses,[36] such as the data centers division and the Xbox entertainment and devices division ($8.9 billion),[38] (which has prevented the Sony PlayStation and other gaming consoles from undermining Windows),[39] and oversaw the acquisition of Skype. However, this initiative failed, and the SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where they now play as the Oklahoma City Thunder. [77], In 2016, Ballmer did an interview with Bloomberg where Ballmer added context to his iPhone statement, saying "People like to point to this quote...but the reason I said that was the price of $600-$700 was too high", he says he did not realize the business model innovation that Apple was going to deploy, using the carriers to subsidize the phones by building the cost into the customer's monthly bill. Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment—same piece of hardware—paying $500 more to get a logo on it? The couple has three sons named Sam Ballmer, Peter Ballmer, and Aaron Ballmer. [31], Under Ballmer's tenure as CEO, Microsoft's share price stagnated. [14][15] Through his mother, Ballmer is a second cousin of actress and comedian Gilda Radner. The economy is helpful. [57], A widely circulated video was his entrance on stage at Microsoft's 25th anniversary event in September 2000,[58] where he shouted and jumped across the stage, and saying "I love this company". [47], There was a list of potential successors to Ballmer as Microsoft CEO, but all had departed the company: Jim Allchin, Brad Silverberg, Paul Maritz, Nathan Myhrvold, Greg Maffei, Pete Higgins, Jeff Raikes, J. Allard, Robbie Bach, Bill Veghte, Ray Ozzie, Bob Muglia and Steven Sinofsky. It has been nicknamed 'monkey boy dance'. L.A. Clippers team owner Steve Ballmer is one of the most outspoken figures in all of North American professional sports as he certainly isn’t one to mince his words. He worked in several upper management positions with the company prior to serving as the CEO. Steve Ballmer is the high-wattage former CEO of Microsoft, who led the company from 2000 to 2014. [24] After briefly trying to write screenplays in Hollywood,[15] in 1980 Ballmer dropped out of the Stanford Graduate School of Business to join Microsoft. His wife, Connie is an advocate for the well being of children. In an interview with ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, Ballmer … During a … Their middle son Peter graduated from Stanford University this year. [30] Gates relinquished day-to-day activities when he stepped down as chief software architect in 2006, while staying on as chairman, and that gave Ballmer the autonomy needed to make major management changes at Microsoft. Steve Ballmer married Connie Snyder in 1990. [43], In 2009, and for the first time since Bill Gates resigned from day-to-day management at Microsoft, Ballmer delivered the opening keynote at CES.[44]. [35] The lackluster stock performance occurred despite Microsoft's financial success at that time. Steve Ballmer and Connie Synder have three sons, Sam, Peter, Aaron and all three have attended Lakeside School where Connie boards chair and sits at the board of Trustees ever since 2004. However, this attempt also fell through. When Steve Ballmer purchased the Clips in 2014, Forbes had the team valued at 575 million dollars. [50] On February 4, 2014, Satya Nadella succeeded Ballmer as CEO. Steve Ballmer Net Worth and Salary: Steve Ballmer is an American businessman and sports activities staff proprietor who has a net worth of $73 billion. [27] The same year, he replaced Microsoft's employee stock options program. [3] While CEO of Microsoft in 2009, Ballmer earned a total compensation of $1,276,627, which included a base salary of $665,833, a cash bonus of $600,000, no stock or options, and other compensation of $10,794. According to legal documents filed late last week Ballmer reacted with fury when told Mark Lukovsky was joining Google. The gift would allow the department to hire new faculty, and hopefully increase the national stature of the program. [29], On January 13, 2000, Ballmer was officially named the chief executive officer. Perhaps most famously, Gates and Steve Ballmer spent the first few years of Ballmer’s tenure as CEO, starting in 2000, clashing over who was really the decider. One of them has even predicted Ballmer’s future – he said the boy would succeed in business. In April 2003 he even interrupted his skiing holiday in Switzerland to personally plead with the mayor of Munich not to switch to GNU/Linux. [26], Ballmer was offered a salary of $50,000 as well as 5-10% of the company. [82] But he did not succeed with this and Munich switched to LiMux, despite his offering a 35% discount at his lobbying visit. Read all about Steve Ballmer's net worth, career, and family They were so close for years that another Microsoft executive described it as a mind meld. Connie Synder is the wife of former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. His father Henry Ballmer was a Swiss immigrant and worked as a manager at Ford Motor company. Ballmer steered the company’s operations, systems development, sales and support. In 2005, he recruited B. Kevin Turner from Walmart, who was the President and CEO of Sam's Club, to become Microsoft's Chief Operating Officer. Five CEOs Who Should Have Already Been Fired (Cisco, GE, WalMart, Sears, Microsoft) - Forbes", "Microsoft: Live From Hollywood! [23] He then worked as an assistant product manager at Procter & Gamble for two years, where he shared an office with Jeff Immelt, who later became CEO of General Electric. He resigned from his position to focus on his new venture– NBA's Los Angeles Clippers. He is the current owner of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). While it was said that Gates would have continued fighting the suit, Ballmer made it his priority to settle these saying: "Being the object of a lawsuit, effectively, or a complaint from your government is a very awkward, uncomfortable position to be in. [39] This diversified product mix helped to offset the company's reliance on PCs and mobile computing devices as the company entered the Post-PC era; in reporting quarterly results during April 2013, while Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 had not managed to increase their market share above single digits, the company increased its profit 19% over the previous quarter in 2012, as the Microsoft Business Division (including Office 365) and Server and Tools division (cloud services) are each larger than the Windows division. That's the principle", Ballmer said. [100], On November 12, 2014, it was announced that Ballmer and his wife Connie donated $50 million to the University of Oregon. Steve Ballmer creates government data resource. He is the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA).According to Forbes, he has an estimated net worth of $74.3 billion, as of December 2020.This makes him the 10th richest person in the world. He spent 34 years in the company and is the one among the richest in the list of Forbes. He eventually became president in 1998, and replaced Gates as CEO on January 13, 2000. People like to point to this quote where I said iPhones will never sell, because the price at $600 or $700 was too high. Ballmer, seen here at a NBA playoff game on April 29, is not one to hide his emotions. Now Let us go through the family profile of Steve Ballmer. He wrote the text for the original Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). In 1977, he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in applied mathematics and economics. [104], Ballmer launched USAFacts.org in 2017, a non-profit organization whose goal is to allow people to understand US government revenue, spending and societal impact. [31], When Ballmer took over as CEO, the company was fighting an antitrust lawsuit brought on by the U.S. government and 20 states, plus class-action lawsuits and complaints from rival companies. It's actually tough, even though you feel that way about yourselves. Steve Ballmer is retiring from Microsoft within the next 12 months, and he's had some time to reflect on his 13-year experience as CEO. Ballmer’s sons are all doing well for themselves as they seem not to be relying on their father’s wealth. [28], In the 20 years following his hire, Ballmer headed several Microsoft divisions, including operations, operating systems development, and sales and support. His mother was a Jewish. Published Wed, Oct 7 2020 9:59 AM EDT Updated Wed, Oct … [2] He is the current owner of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). It just has all downside. [61][62], Ballmer was Gates' best man at his wedding to Melinda French, and the two men described their relationship as a marriage. "[89][90], In 2013, Ballmer said that Google was a "monopoly" that should be pressured from market competition authorities. Just like his ex-boss Bill Gates, Ballmer was a drop out. ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Ohm Youngmisuk reported Tuesday on Ballmer’s process and the steps that led to Rivers’ departure, which was ultimately sealed when the two sides couldn’t come together on a vision for next season. [74], In 2007, Ballmer said "There's no chance that the [Apple] iPhone is going to get any significant market share. Their middle son Peter graduated from Stanford University this year. After a California court confirmed the authority of Shelly Sterling to sell the team, it was officially announced on August 12, 2014, that Ballmer would become the Los Angeles Clippers owner. Ballmer has a very energetic and influential personality is known to motivate his employees and partners with the same. A special committee that included Bill Gates would decide on the next CEO. She currently works as an advocate for the well being of children.  She has been active in many NGO activities and a variety of non-profit boards for several organizations. He joined Microsoft in 1980 as employee No. [36] In terms of leading the company's total annual profit growth, Ballmer's tenure at Microsoft (16.4%) surpassed the performances of other well-known CEOs such as General Electric's Jack Welch (11.2%) and IBM's Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Just like he did with his basketball team, Ballmer has also bared his family from using Apple devices. In 1990, Steve Ballmer got married to Connie Synder. "[32], Upon becoming CEO, Ballmer required detailed business justification in order to approve of new products, rather than allowing hundreds of products that sounded potentially interesting or trendy. Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer threw a chair across his office and threatened to "fucking kill Google" when told a key employee was leaving to join the search giant. [48][49] B. Kevin Turner, Microsoft's Chief Operating Officer (COO), was considered by some to be a de facto number two to Ballmer, with Turner having a strong grasp of business and operations but lacking technological vision. [101], On November 13, 2014, it was announced that Ballmer would provide a gift, estimated at $60 million, to Harvard University's computer science department. The couple has three sons. Steven Anthony Ballmer known as Steve Ballmer is an American Chief Executive, who is the former chief executive of Microsoft. "Use him, yes, need him, no". [98] The purchase would allow him to build the Inglewood Basketball and Entertainment Center in the nearby area since plans for a new Clippers' arena were opposed by the former owners of The Forum. [102] Ballmer previously donated $10 million to the same department in 1994, in a joint-gift with Bill Gates. By 2015, Apple was the world's most valuable company. Steve Ballmer with his wife Connie Snyder. [21][22], At college, Ballmer was a manager for the Harvard Crimson football team and a member of the Fox Club, worked on The Harvard Crimson newspaper as well as the Harvard Advocate, and lived down the hall from fellow sophomore Bill Gates. [68] Moreover, he attributed the success of the expensively-priced iPhones to carrier subsidies. Born to a Swiss immigrant father who was a manager at Ford Motor company, Ballmer grew up among rich kids in the upscale neighbourhood of Farmington Hills, Michigan. As a philanthropist, Ballmer has donated millions to various organizations. "[88], Ballmer then resumed attempting to persuade Lucovsky to stay at Microsoft. [34], Since Bill Gates' retirement, Ballmer oversaw a "dramatic shift away from the company's PC-first heritage", replacing most major division heads in order to break down the "talent-hoarding fiefdoms", and Businessweek said that the company "arguably now has the best product lineup in its history". He maintained that his comments in 2001 were right at the time but that times have changed. He attended a private preparatory school in Beverly Hills, Michigan where he showed geniu… Steve and Connie Ballmer give $7M to national gun control group co-founded by Michael Bloomberg by Todd Bishop on July 16, 2020 at 10:49 am July 16, 2020 at … His father was a Swiss immigrant and mother was Jewish.Steven attended college prep and engineering classes at Lawrence Technological University. Ballmer also constructed the company's $20 billion Enterprise Business, consisting of new products and services such as Exchange, Windows Server, SQL Server, SharePoint, System Center, and Dynamics CRM, each of which initially faced an uphill battle for acceptance but have emerged as leading or dominant in each category. Ballmer … [80] In June 2001 he called Linux a "cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches". [8], Although as a child he was so shy that he would hyperventilate before Hebrew school,[15] Ballmer is known for his energetic and exuberant personality, which is meant to motivate employees and partners,[51] shouting so much that he needed surgery on his vocal cords. His leadership and dedication had significantly changed the way the company operated and performed in the market. [16] Ballmer grew up in the affluent community of Farmington Hills, Michigan. It is hard for me to be excited about the Android phones. Mr. Ballmer then said: "Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy. As a philanthropist, Mr. Ballmer has donated millions to several organizations. As part of his plans to expand on hardware, on June 19, 2012, Ballmer revealed Microsoft's first ever computer device, a tablet called Microsoft Surface at an event held in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Steve Ballmer served as Microsoft's CEO for 14 years. [97], In March 2020, Ballmer agreed to buy The Forum in Inglewood, California. Steve Ballmer is an American Businessman and former CEO of Microsoft. [103], Ballmer serves on the World Chairman's Council of the Jewish National Fund, which means he has donated US$1 million or more to the JNF. "[76], In 2015, Ballmer called Microsoft's decision to invest in Apple to save it from bankruptcy in 1997 as the "craziest thing we ever did". by Aaron Smith @AaronSmithCNN April 18, 2017: 10:43 AM ET . Steve Ballmer has been married to Connie Synder since 1990. [52][53][54] One of his earliest known viral videos was a parody video, produced for Microsoft employees in 1986, promoting Windows 1.0 in the style of a Crazy Eddie commercial. On August 23, 2013, Microsoft announced that Ballmer would retire within the next 12 months. [64] In a November 2016 interview, Ballmer said he and Gates have "drifted apart" ever since, saying that they always had a "brotherly relationship" beforehand. Microsoft's stock price rebounded on the news. ", "Ballmer garnishes Bing 2.0 with iPhone 'stomp': Return of the Kool-Aid kid", "The best and worst of barmy Steve Balmer", "Ballmer readies slate PC for CES: Monkey boy to hurl spoiler at Apple? and so much more", "Steve Ballmer: Android is for computer science geeks", "Microsoft's Ballmer mocks Android phone", "Ballmer calls Google a 'monopoly' that authorities should control", "Mayor Nickels announces local effort to buy Sonics, renovate KeyArena", "Ballmer, Nordstroms part of Seattle arena investor group", "Steve Ballmer Takes Over Ownership of Los Angeles Clippers - NBC News", "Ballmer wants Clippers to ban Apple products", "Steve Ballmer To Ban L.A. Clippers From Using Apple Products", "Clippers buy Forum for $400 million, clearing way for new arena construction", "Who are the NBA's best and worst team owners? 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