If Steve Ballmer Ran Apple - stratēchery by Ben Thompson

With Ballmer’s departure there are, unsurprisingly, a number of posts critical of him (we certainly were). Ben Thompson raises the caution, however, of being too critical of Ballmer when he was simply doing what the market ostensibly suggests is best: maximizing shareholder value. It is an interesting question simply because “short term gain” for Microsoft was nearly 2 decades. Yes, their long term prospects look more bleak, but they’ve reaped so much value for so long, that its almost difficult to judge them (and Ballmer) too harshly.