Sign in

BALLMER TO RETIRE FROM MICROSOFT

Final Ballmerism: 'There's never a perfect time, but now is the right time'

Kelly Fiveash Fri 23 Aug 2013 // 13:27 UTC

Steve Ballmer is leaving identity crisis-hit Microsoft.

The software maker's chief announced his intention to retire from MS within the next year.

He said: "There is never a perfect time for this type of transition, but now is the right time."

Whomever the new boss of Microsoft will be, he or she has a big job ahead of them in forcing the company to swallow a business strategy that wraps itself around devices and services - something Redmond has failed to achieve to date.

Microsoft, in recent months, has undergone one of the biggest restructures in its life as the Seattle-based company attempts to shake off the fact that it is still best known for selling shrink-wrapped packages of software.

The hunt is now on for a replacement and Microsoft said a special committee would direct the transition from Ballmerism.

Microsoft shares are already up nearly 9 per cent as this article is published following the announcement. ®

128 Comments

Similar topics

Narrower topics

Other stories you might like

  • Wi-Fi hotspots and Windows on Arm broken by Microsoft's latest patches
    Only way to resolve is a rollback – but update included security fixes
    Richard Speed Mon 20 Jun 2022 // 15:30 UTC

    Updated Microsoft's latest set of Windows patches are causing problems for users.

    Windows 10 and 11 are affected, with both experiencing similar issues (although the latter seems to be suffering a little more).

    KB5014697, released on June 14 for Windows 11, addresses a number of issues, but the known issues list has also been growing. Some .NET Framework 3.5 apps might fail to open (if using Windows Communication Foundation or Windows Workflow component) and the Wi-Fi hotspot features appears broken.

    Continue reading
  • Start using Modern Auth now for Exchange Online
    Before Microsoft shutters basic logins in a few months
    Jeff Burt Wed 29 Jun 2022 // 22:59 UTC

    The US government is pushing federal agencies and private corporations to adopt the Modern Authentication method in Exchange Online before Microsoft starts shutting down Basic Authentication from the first day of October.

    In an advisory [PDF] this week, Uncle Sam's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) noted that while federal executive civilian branch (FCEB) agencies – which includes such organizations as the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission, and such departments as Homeland Security, Justice, Treasury, and State – are required to make the change, all organizations should make the switch from Basic Authentication.

    "Federal agencies should determine their use of Basic Auth and migrate users and applications to Modern Auth," CISA wrote. "After completing the migration to Modern Auth, agencies should block Basic Auth."

    Continue reading
  • FabricScape: Microsoft warns of vuln in Service Fabric
    Not trying to spin this as a Linux security hole, surely?
    Richard Speed Wed 29 Jun 2022 // 13:40 UTC

    Microsoft is flagging up a security hole in its Service Fabric technology when using containerized Linux workloads, and urged customers to upgrade their clusters to the most recent release.

    The flaw is tracked as CVE-2022-30137, an elevation-of-privilege vulnerability in Microsoft's Service Fabric. An attacker would need read/write access to the cluster as well as the ability to execute code within a Linux container granted access to the Service Fabric runtime in order to wreak havoc.

    Through a compromised container, for instance, a miscreant could gain control of the resource's host Service Fabric node and potentially the entire cluster.

    Continue reading

Biting the hand that feeds IT © 1998–2022

Do not sell my personal information Cookies Privacy Ts&Cs