Rumor: Microsoft cameo at WWDC keynote
Wall Street analyst gets rumor mill going with report that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will be onstage with Steve Jobs at upcoming Apple conference.
Today's addition to the crazy Apple rumor file: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer might appear on stage with Apple CEO Steve Jobs at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference.
That's what Wall Street analyst Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research said in a note to investors. According to Chowdhry, seven minutes have been set aside for Microsoft to talk up its Visual Studio development tools to Apple developers during Jobs' June 7 keynote speech.
It would certainly be a big deal for Microsoft to come to what is Apple's biggest annual media event, though it wouldn't be unprecedented. The last time a Microsoft CEO made an appearance at a Jobs keynote was in 1997 to announce its $150 million investment in the then-struggling Mac-maker. That clearly won't be necessary this time: as of Wednesday, Apple is officially worth more than Microsoft.
And while it is the time of year for an onslaught of wild Apple-related rumors, there are any number of reasons Ballmer might show up at an Apple developer conference.
Some have speculated that Microsoft might be bringing Silverlight to the iPhone, or that perhaps the company has struck a deal to make Bing the default search engine on the iPhone. Microsoft also has a new version of Office for Mac coming this fall.
Update 11:45 a.m. PDT: False alarm. Microsoft says it will not be appearing at WWDC. Or Dancing with the Stars.
Ina Fried contributed to this report.