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Make the wrong choice on Yahoo, and Ballmer could lose his job

BallmerContemplative.jpgMicrosoft's board yesterday gave CEO Steve Ballmer "broad discretion" to decide on his own whether Microsoft should raise its offer for Yahoo, initiate a proxy fight for the company or walk away, the Wall Street Journal reports. That means if Ballmer makes the wrong call, it could cost him his job. Ballmer took over day-to-day operations from Bill Gates in 2000 and lately, things haven't gone well for the company. Vista is broken and the latest rumor is that a new operating system, Windows Seven, won't come out until 2010. And, despite Microsoft's push into online advertising, including a $6 billion buy of aQuantive, Ballmer's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo is an admission that Microsoft's strategy has failed. Microsoft still only commands a mere 9.4 percent of the search engine market. We think he should walk away, but doing nothing carries its own risks. If Ballmer blows it on Yahoo, would anyone blame Gates for wanting to leave the company in better hands before he retires this summer?

9:40 AM on Thu May 1 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
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