We knew that Steve Ballmer was dragging down Microsoft, but now we have a value on it. He announced his retirement today and MSFT went up $2.37 per share today. With 8.33 billion shares outstanding, he's been dragging the stock down by almost $20 billion.
Sorry, Steve, about the dissing by Wall Street but at least your stock and options will have appreciated too.
When someone posts a chart showing the performance of Microsoft's stock under Ballmer's tenure, I'll link to it. I'm not expecting much gain, if any. Bloomberg has given us some numbers: "An investment of $1,000 when Ballmer took over is now worth 13 percent less, including dividend returns, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Since Microsoft’s 1986 initial public offering through the end of the Gates era, $1,000 turned into $554,464."
Here's a Fortune article on this, written before the market closed: Steve Ballmer: The $16 billion drag on Microsoft.
Updated Aug. 24: Added quote from Bloomberg.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Well-thought-out comments by intelligent people are encouraged. Other comments will be deleted or not approved. Note that anonymous comments are allowed; feel free to include your handle in your comment.