{"id":2391,"date":"2008-05-04T21:41:07","date_gmt":"2008-05-05T02:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mathewingram.com\/work\/?p=2391"},"modified":"2008-05-04T21:41:07","modified_gmt":"2008-05-05T02:41:07","slug":"steve-ballmer-doesnt-need-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/2008\/05\/04\/steve-ballmer-doesnt-need-to-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Ballmer doesn’t need to go"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the wake of the Microsoft-Yahoo merger collapse, there has been a lot of commentary about how Steve Ballmer’s job as CEO of Microbeast is in danger because the deal didn’t go through. Erick Schonfeld has a post up at TechCrunch that quotes an anonymous source<\/a> at the software behemoth as saying Ballmer is uneasy — hint: he’s yelling even more now! — and the board is considering pitching him overboard. I’m going to side with my friend Kara Swisher<\/a> on this one; I think much of that is probably wishful thinking by Microsoft insiders. I don’t think Ballmer is going anywhere — or at least not because of this.<\/p>\n

So why did I say that Jerry Yang should be fired<\/a>? Completely different story, IMO. Microsoft made a gamble that it could bag Yahoo, and that there would be enough synergies to justify the deal (adding Yahoo’s media properties, the ad-keyword business, etc.). You can debate whether that’s true or not, but in my opinion it was a fair bet to make. And when it looked like it was going to get too expensive<\/a> or go needlessly hostile, Ballmer walked. No harm, no foul. Not to mention, of course, that this still isn’t over yet. The fat lady is just warming up.<\/p>\n

Yang, on the other hand — either on his own, or aided and abetted by the Yahoo board — waffled and whiffed and came up with lame proposals for boosting the company’s value, and never produced anything that justified either a much higher share value or a dismissal of the Microsoft deal in favour of something better. There is nothing better, and Yang knows it — and most Yahoo shareholders likely know it too<\/a>. That’s why he deserves to leave, and Ballmer deserves to stay.<\/p>\n

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In the wake of the Microsoft-Yahoo merger collapse, there has been a lot of commentary about how Steve Ballmer’s job as CEO of Microbeast is in danger because the deal didn’t go through. Erick Schonfeld has a post up at TechCrunch that quotes an anonymous source at the software behemoth as saying Ballmer is uneasy … <\/p>\n

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