steve ballmer

Senate approves immigration bill with increased H-1B visas

In a rare bipartisan effort, the U.S. Senate approved the immigration bill with a 68-32 vote on Thursday. This means the lobbying efforts put forth by Facebook, Microsoft, Google, and other major tech companies most likely made a difference.

The 1,200-page measure, dubbed the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act, which ultimately won the Senate's approval, calls for boosting security on the U.S.-Mexico border, helping immigrants that are currently in the U.S. illegally, and increasing H-1B visas to foreign workers.

It's the bit about H-1B visas that the tech companies were … Read more

Ballmer's latest pitch to the faithful: Wide of the mark?

Steve Ballmer's not a man given to standing still on stage for long, but for a brief moment Wednesday morning, he struck a pose in front of some of the most devoted Microsoft developers with his left arm jackknifed, hand on hip.

It was a pugnacious posture, defiant yet also expressing confidence in Microsoft's public rebuilding of Windows. Microsoft's chief executive made the case at Build 2013 that while things may not always be smooth, the company was heading in the right direction.

Ballmer emphasized a new philosophy at Microsoft, offering up what he termed a "… Read more

Microsoft's pitch for hybrids: Tablets alone don't cut it

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer pitched upcoming "2-in-1" devices hard Wednesday at the Build Conference. Part of the pitch included mocking the dedicated tablet experience.

Here's what Ballmer said.

How many of us have gone to a meeting with somebody who brought a tablet and then when it comes time to actually take notes, writes them down on pencil and paper. Or can't get at the spreadsheet...or try to use it in terminal emulator mode...or take [a long time] to set up and turn their tablet into something that approximates a PC.

That statement -- … Read more

Microsoft moves from short twitch to rapid release at Build 2013

At the Microsoft Build 2013 keynote in San Francisco, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer wanted everyone to know that Microsoft is not a lumbering giant.

"We're transitioning from a software company to a company that's building software, devices and services," Ballmer said. "And the only way we can do that is to adopt a rapid product release cadence. This is fundamental to what we're doing and what we must to do to mobilize our ecosystem and our partners."

To demonstrate Microsoft's rapid release cadence, Ballmer and team rolled out a preview of Windows … Read more

Bill Gates still world's second richest person

Bill Gates is now worth $67 billion. But he's still only No. 2 among the world's wealthiest people.

Released today, Forbes' ranking of the richest people on the planet found Gates' fortune up $6 billion this year. The increase came not so much from Microsoft stock, which has shown little sign of life recently, but from other financial holdings and private investments.

More importantly, Forbes dubbed Gates the world's most generous person. Microsoft's chairman continues to devote a large amount of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with the goal of wiping out … Read more

Surface won't dominate but it's a 'real business,' says Ballmer

Sales of Microsoft's Surface may not set the tablet world on fire, but CEO Steve Ballmer still sees a key role for the device.

In an interview published today by MIT Technology Review, Ballmer snuck past the initial question of whether he was pleased with Surface sales.

"I'm super-glad we did Surface," Ballmer said in response. "I think it is important -- and not just for Microsoft but for the entire Windows ecosystem -- to see integrated hardware and software."

But the CEO did concede that Surface isn't likely to dominate the PC … Read more

Bill Gates 'not satisfied' with Microsoft's innovations

Although Bill Gates stepped away from his day-to-day role at Microsoft nearly five years ago, he still keeps a close eye on the company he co-founded -- and he isn't always happy with what he sees.

During an interview broadcast this morning on CBS This Morning, the Microsoft chairman was asked by Charlie Rose whether he was happy with Steve Ballmer's performance as chief executive. Noting that there have been "many amazing things" accomplished under Ballmer's leadership in the past couple of years, Gates said he was not satisfied with the company's innovations.

"… Read more

Microsoft's Ballmer disses Dropbox as a 'little startup'

SkyDrive or Dropbox? That's a decision many people face when seeking online storage. But Steve Ballmer doesn't see much in the way of competition.

In a chat with BusinessWeek published yesterday, Microsoft's head honcho touted his own company's online audience over that of Dropbox.

SkyDrive had more than 200 million users as of October, according to comments from then Windows president Steven Sinofsky. DropBox reached 100 million users in November.

"Well, you've got to remember, 100 million sounds like a pretty small number to me, actually," Ballmer told BusinessWeek. "We've got … Read more

Microsoft reports revenue of $21.5B, earnings of $6.38B

After the close of trading today, Microsoft reported a quarter that came in just a bit shy of what Wall Street was looking for. Not exactly a Google performance, but certainly not Apple either.

The world's largest software maker said it earned $6.38 billion, or 76 cents a share, on revenue of $21.46 billion in its latest quarter, which ended in December. That's a drop from the year ago quarter, when Microsoft earned $6.62 billion, or 78 cents a share. The results are also slightly below Wall Street estimates of 77 cents a share on revenue of $21.53 billion. … Read more