Steve Ballmer, in an internal letter to Microsoft employees, announced his plans to retire as CEO of Microsoft within the next 12 months. This letter was posted to the Microsoft News Center today (August 23, 2013).
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2013/aug13/08-23StatementPR.aspx
Steve has been the target of a lot of kudos and bashing over the years. I don’t intend to bash him.
My only experience with Steve is when he would come and speak to the worldwide MVP Summit. He appears to be very much at home with an audience of 3,000 techies drilling him with questions. He would stand up on stage, take questions from the audience, give his answers (all without any notes or teleprompters), and quite often, jot down notes on comments he received.
He truly was larger than life on that stage. He would move all around, rarely sitting. You could feel his passion for Microsoft.
Here is a photo I took at the 2009 MVP Summit when one of the MVP’s gave him a “Windows Home Server (WHS)” sticker:
It’s a dawning of a new era for Microsoft. I wish Steve well.