Is there a Ballmer Discount on Microsoft shares?

There were rumors that Microsoft's top management began discussing the removal of Steve Ballmer as CEO. The reason for this was the poor dynamics of Microsoft stocks in recent years, which is why even Apple has pulled ahead in terms of capitalization.

Microsoft has good financial results: an increase in Xbox revenues, record sales of Windows 7, accumulation of more than $ 20 billion in cash at the bank, but for some reason stocks feel worse than the market. According to some shareholders, the capitalization is influenced by the “Balmer discount”, which pushes the course. If the CEO leaves, the market can take it positively.

Talk about Ballmer's departure came after a recent Microsoft Global Experience corporate conference in Atlanta, which brought together 10,000 Microsoft employees. Many of them got the impression that Steve is not the same, he lost inspiration, and his speeches are not lit up as before. Some participants tweeted about this, while others privately shared their impressions that for Steve this is the last Microsoft Global Experience conference. Next year he will be gone.

Experts on condition of anonymity say that with its products like Kin, Bing and Zune, Microsoft looks "irrelevant in Silicon Valley."

Many agree that Ballmer is now under pressure. However, there are several obstacles to his departure. First, Steve enjoys the unconditional trust of the board of directors. Secondly, a worthy candidate has not yet been seen in his place. After the departure of Bill Gates, there were many options, but now they are not there, and the post of CEO of Microsoft, according to some, is more like a dictatorship. This is due to the specific leadership style inherent in Ballmer, who is known for his rigidity and expressiveness. There is reliable evidence that in 2005 Ballmer threw a chair and cursed in his office when he found out that one of the programmers was joining Google.