Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Announces Retirement

Today, Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft announced that he'd be stepping down from his position sometime in the next year. The question of who would be the next CEO of Microsoft has been brought up, and so far, there's been no answer. Ballmer hopes it'll be someone who can carry the company into the future, and has high hopes for someone more youthful taking control. Wall Street seems to think this is great news though. Upon Ballmer's announcement, stock prices soared to their highest price this month, and the second highest of the year thus far. That's got to hurt Steve Ballmer's ego.

When people think of Ballmer's reign, they think of things like Vista, Windows 8, the Surface tablets, Windows phone, and other flops. That's probably why immediately after his announcement, Microsoft stock prices shot up so quickly. However, he wasn't solely responsible for Microsoft's terrible products, as anyone who had the misfortune of using Windows ME could tell you (which was released under Bill Gates).

Steve Ballmer wasn't in the news much, but he has had a large influence on how Microsoft runs, and it wasn't all bad. Windows 7 was a huge improvement over Windows Vista and XP, although many users have stayed with XP. This just means Microsoft didn't market or sell their products properly. Perhaps a change in leadership is exactly what Microsoft needs to stop their decline, as long as it's not too late.

Sources: Redmond Pie and Bloomberg (iPad App)