At gigantic pep rally, Microsoft marks 30 years of Steve Ballmer |
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At gigantic pep rally, Microsoft marks 30 years of Steve Ballmer
More than 11,000 Microsoft employees from 107 countries are in Atlanta this week for a huge annual event known as MGX, the "Microsoft Global Experience," a big pep rally for the people who sell and promote the company's products. The event is private and confidential, in theory, but with that many social-networking fiends and their smartphones in a sports arena, some details inevitably leak out.
Which is how we know that Microsoft this morning surprised embattled CEO Steve Ballmer with an "emotional" tribute to his 30 years at the company, reflecting on his long career since Bill Gates convinced him to come aboard in June 1980. The company brought Ballmer's entire family out on stage and rendered him momentarily speechless -- no small feat, considering his traditional behavior at such events.
"Everything I've got is in this arena!" he reportedly said after regaining his composure.
Sentiment aside, the timing is very interesting. Ballmer has seen criticism of his leadership rise over the past year, despite the turnaround of the flagship Windows business, as Microsoft's share price has remained stagnant and the company has struggled to keep pace against Google and Apple in the mobile phone business.
Some shareholders would no doubt like to interpret the tribute as a retirement montage, but in the context of the Microsoft rally it was more along the lines of a show of support. Assuming he's not ultimately forced out, Ballmer said as recently as 2008 that he's planning to stick around until his last kid goes to college, around 2018.
Also watching what employees are saying about MGX, Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet collects the best (and funniest) tweets from the event, so far, in this post.
According to a Microsoft spokesman, topics of MGX this year include cloud services, mobility, Office 2010, SharePoint, virtualization, and more. Windows is no doubt central to the agenda, as well. Apart from Ballmer, speakers include chief operating officer Kevin Turner and many other Microsoft business leaders.
Microsoft reports quarterly and fiscal year-end earnings Thursday afternoon and holds its annual day-long confab with Wall Street analysts in Redmond next week.
(Picture of Ballmer on stage via yfrog)
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