Ballmer Worst CEO - Forbes

Steve Ballmer’s Hunts Point Mansion

“#1 – Steve Ballmer, Microsoft. Without a doubt, Mr. Ballmer is the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today.” This is the first sentence about Steve Ballmer in a 5/12/12 Forbes article by Adam Hartung titled: “Oops! Five CEOs Who Should Have Already Been Fired (Cisco, GE, WalMart, Sears, Microsoft)”

The article continues: “Not only has he singlehandedly steered Microsoft out of some of the fastest growing and most lucrative tech markets (mobile music, handsets and tablets) but in the process he has sacrificed the growth and profits of not only his company but “ecosystem” companies such as Dell, Hewlett Packard and even Nokia. The reach of his bad leadership has extended far beyond Microsoft when it comes to destroying shareholder value – and jobs.

“Microsoft peaked at $60/share in 2000, just as Mr. Ballmer took the reins. . . only rarely made it back to its current low $30s value. . . execution of new rollouts were constantly delayed, and ended up with products so lacking in any enhanced value . . . as Apple took the leadership position in personal technology.

“So today . . . Microsoft is a PC company, nothing more, as demand for PCs shifts to mobile. . . An insane bet for any CEO – and one that would have been avoided entirely had the Microsoft Board replaced Mr. Ballmer years ago . . .

“Although he’s #19 on Forbes list of billionaires, Mr. Ballmer should not be allowed to take such incredible risks with investor money and employee jobs. Best he be retired to enjoy his fortune rather than deprive investors and employees of building theirs.”

Steve joined Microsoft in 1980 for a percentage of the company, a $50,000 annual salary and stock options. He was Microsoft’s 24th employee and first manager other than Gates and Allen. The Hunts Point mansion of Steve and Connie Ballmer is pictured above. They purchased the estate in 1987 for $1.3 million and extensively renovated the buildings, but maintained their charm, in 1991. The mansion and property has a $10 million estimated value. The main house is 4,175 sq ft and the property is 2.09 acres with 160 feet of waterfront. It is adjacent to the south of Craig McCaw’s (formerly Kenny G’s) mansion (4/30/12 post). The neighborhood is covered in a 2/16/11 Lake Washington Cruising post.

Paul Maritz Exec of the Year – Silicon Valley

Paul and Yaffa Maritz’s Mercer Island Home

Paul Maritz, a former Microsoft top executive, was named the Silicon Valley Business Journal's 2011 Executive of the Year. “2011 has been tough for many of Silicon Valley's biggest tech companies . . . All the while, VMware Inc. has been . . . steadily growing its business and developing new products that have kept it at the forefront of its industry. That's why, in this week's Business Journal, we named VMware CEO Paul Maritz as our Executive of the Year. . . is planning an expansion that will more than triple the size of its headquarters campus.”

He joined the company as CEO in 2008. VMware provides virtualization (cloud computing) software. Maritz’ corporate statement is “VMware enables our customers’ success by simplifying and automating IT in the Cloud Era.” Maritz was also the recipient of Computerworld’s 2011 Morgan Stanley Leadership Award for Global Commerce, “which recognizes individuals whose personal leadership has made a critical contribution to the effective use of information technology throughout the world.”

He was with Microsoft from 1986 to 2000. His last position was executive vice president of the Platforms Strategy and Developer Group. He was part of the 5-person executive management team and, according to Wikipedia, was the third-ranking executive behind Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. He was responsible for most of Microsoft's desktop and server software, including Windows and Internet Explorer.

He has maintained his Mercer Island home that is near and south of Paul Allen’s campus/compound.  A major expansion of this home and dock house was completed in 2003. The living area is now 8,040 sq ft and the property is 1.6 acres with 169 feet of waterfront.

Paul Allen – Idea Man

Paul Allen’s Campus on Mercer Island

Please see the 12/28/10 post for the guide for viewing the $150 million, 9.6 acre campus.

Paul Allen’s new book, Idea Man, has created a lot of controversy.  Some of the local headlines are:  Paul Allen goes public with hard feelings toward Gates, Paul Allen's attempt to shape his legacy may backfire, Paul Allen says book not revenge against Gates, and Paul Allen's book: Shaping legacy with a chainsaw?

An interesting article (Seattle Times by Kristi Helm) discusses a lengthy interview with Paul at his MI campus and discusses Paul’s relationship with Bill while also describing the author’s tour of Paul’s campus.  Helm’s description of the main controversy in the book is:  “Allen accuses Gates, along with Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, of trying to cheat him out of Microsoft shares while Allen was being treated for cancer in 1982. Allen said he overheard the two conspiring to dilute his shares by issuing options to themselves and others. (Ballmer went to Allen's house later to apologize.)  ‘My partner was out to grab as much of the pie as possible and hold onto it,’ Allen writes."

Most of the book is about the creation of Microsoft and the eight years Paul was with Microsoft.  The headlines are grabbing the obvious rift between Allen and the team of Gates (house guide) and Ballmer (house guide).

Microsoft’s Ballmer’s Mansion

Steve Ballmer’s Hunts Point Estate

The Seattle Times reported that many stockholders at Microsoft’s 11/16/10 annual meeting “grumbled about Microsoft’s languishing stock price.” Click here CEO Steve Ballmer conducted most of the meeting and discussed Wall Street’s disconnect to the stock price, optimizing every day, new products, and Goldman Sachs’ suggestion to break up the company.

The Seattle Times also reported, in an 11/5/10 article, Ballmer is selling $2 billion of his Microsoft stock. This is about 18% of his holdings. Click here 

Compared to the other 30 present and past Microsoft executives’ homes in my book, Ballmer has a relatively modest estate. It is in Hunts Point and next door to Craig McCaw’s (formerly Kenny G’s) estate. The photograph above is from page 155 in my book, Lake Washington 130 Homes.