[stealthn]

Originally Posted by Busta Rib

As is typical of MS over the past 15 years, they are a day late and a dollar (or three) short. They follow instead of lead, mimic where they should be innovating, and focus on all the wrong things, particularly user experience. With three generations of iPad out in the wild, you would think they had a pretty good/clear bogey that they needed to hit and yet, they still missed with the Surface RT. Hello, Microsoft...it's 2012. Get with the times.

I live in Seattle and as a resident, I WANT to see Microsoft succeed so badly. I have many friends and acquaintances that work at MS. Their success and prosperity means success and prosperity for everyone. They are a halo employer in Washington by sheer numbers and nature of their business. Yet they continually fail and disappoint. Balmer needs to go and should have been ousted over a decade ago. The only reason he has been able to keep his job is due to growing revenue from Office and Windows, but that well will dry up and he will not have billions of revenue and profit to hide behind. It's been good for the bottom line now and the next quarterly report, but not for positioning them to be successful in the future.

I recruit in the technology world and frequently speak with candidates that either work at MS or did in the past. Many have commented that it has become a bloated org, not an exciting/innovative place to work, and has become a long-term parking spot for people that are simply looking for a paycheck and great benefits, not to create new and better technology. At least half of the employee base is disappointed with Balmer and the executive leadership and would like to see some change at the top.

More than likely, if you have a 401k or retirement account, you are likely a shareholder of MS. Every fund has a position in MS in some manner. We are likely all invested to some degree and it is appalling that Balmer has been able to preside over such a lackluster organization for so long with a flat stock price, products that bomb, lack of industry leadership, and no clear direction moving forward.

Epic post man!