And Ballmer takes a beating

Man, there are quite a few articles circulating around out there that are basically calling for Ballmer’s Head. Looks like people are getting to the boiling point with Ballmer and his decade of bad decision making.

There’s no doubt that Microsoft is still making more money per quarter than most companies will make in their entire history, but the point can also be made that since Ballmer has taken over MS has missed the boat on tablets, phones, mobile devices, search, readers and plenty of other products. Also, the company stock has hovered at the anemic $30 level, a far cry from their previous $150+ spike/split behavior.

Microsoft is making plenty of money, but they aren’t dominating markets and they aren’t penetrating new ones. And if the numbers are to be believed MS has invested nearly $100 Billion in R&D over this last decade, but what do they have to show for it? Deserved or not, Vista was a black eye. Windows 7 has all the hype in the world regardless of what I think of it, but when you move beyond Office and Windows what do you have? Project Natal? Whatever.

And what would have happened if Ballmer had actually spent $45 billion on Yahoo? The mind reels at that one.

Under Ballmer’s leadership MS has tried dozens of different things and many of them have been less than a success. Is it time for Ballmer to step down and let someone else take the reins? Or is Ballmer just gearing up for a new flurry of activity and innovation?

But before you answer, check this article out. Seems Ballmer is doing more harm than good. Some feel he has a distorted sense of reality.

What do you think?

Ballmer just opened the second envelope