Steven Anthony Ballmer (/ˈbɔːlmər/; March 24, 1956) is an American businessman and investor who served as chief executive officer of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014.

[8][9] Under Ballmer's leadership, a 14-year period, the company tripled sales and doubled profits, but lost its market dominance and missed out on 21st-century technology trends such as the ascendance of smartphones in the forms of iPhone and Android.

[25][26] Ballmer worked as an assistant product manager at Procter & Gamble for two years, where he shared an office with Jeff Immelt, who later became CEO of General Electric.

[27] After briefly trying to write screenplays in Hollywood,[28] he started attending the Stanford Graduate School of Business for his MBA (where Mukesh Ambani was his classmate[29][30]), but dropped out in 1980 to join Microsoft.

When Dave Marquardt suggested for Microsoft to reorganize as a corporation instead of a private partnership, he proposed that Ballmer own 8% of the company in exchange for cancelling the profit-sharing model.

Ballmer was promoted to President of Microsoft in July 1998, making him the de facto number two after the chairman and CEO, Bill Gates.

[6][7] As CEO, Ballmer handled company finances and daily operations, but Gates remained chairman of the board and still retained control of the "technological vision" as chief software architect.

[38] Gates relinquished day-to-day activities when he stepped down as chief software architect in 2006, while staying on as chairman, and that gave Ballmer the autonomy needed to make major management changes at Microsoft.

While it was said that Gates would have continued fighting the federal suit, Ballmer sought to settle these, saying: "Being the object of a lawsuit, effectively, or a complaint from your government is a very awkward, uncomfortable position to be in.

[44] With the company's total annual profit growth of 16.4%, Ballmer's tenure at Microsoft surpassed the performances of other well-known CEOs such as General Electric's Jack Welch (11.2%) and IBM's Louis V. Gerstner Jr.

[39] These gains came from the existing Windows and Office franchises, with Ballmer maintaining their profitability, fending off threats from competitors such as Linux and other open-source operating systems and Google Docs.

[48][44] Ballmer attracted criticism for failing to capitalize on several new consumer technologies, forcing Microsoft to play catch-up in the areas of tablet computing, smartphones and music players with mixed results.

[39][44] According to The Wall Street Journal, under Ballmer's watch, "In many cases, Microsoft latched onto technologies like smartphones, touchscreens, 'smart' cars and wristwatches that read sports scores aloud long before Apple or Google did.

[50] In a May 2012 column in Forbes magazine, Adam Hartung described Ballmer as "the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company", saying he had "steered Microsoft out of some of the fastest growing and most lucrative tech markets (mobile music, headsets and tablets)".

[55] There was a list of potential successors to Ballmer as Microsoft CEO, but all had departed the company: Jim Allchin, Brad Silverberg, Paul Maritz, Nathan Myhrvold, Greg Maffei, Pete Higgins, Jeff Raikes, J. Allard, Robbie Bach, Bill Veghte, Ray Ozzie, Bob Muglia and Steven Sinofsky.

[9] Although as a child he was so shy that he would hyperventilate before Hebrew school,[28] Ballmer is known for his energetic and exuberant personality, which is meant to motivate employees and partners,[59] shouting so much that he needed surgery on his vocal cords.

Combative debates—a part of Microsoft's corporate culture—that many observers believed were personal arguments occurred within the relationship; while Gates was glad in 2000 that Ballmer was willing to become CEO so he could focus on technology,[28] The Wall Street Journal reported that there was tension surrounding the transition of authority.

Things became so bitter that, on one occasion, Gates stormed out of a meeting after a shouting match in which Ballmer jumped to the defense of several colleagues, according to an individual present at the time.

[73] After saying in 2008 that he intended to remain CEO for another decade, Ballmer announced his retirement in 2013, after losing billions of dollars in acquisitions and on the Surface tablet.

Ballmer says that he regretted the lack of focus on Windows Mobile in the early 2000s, leaving Microsoft a distant third in the smartphone market [in 2013].

[79] On December 24, 2014, the Seattle Times reported that the IRS sued Ballmer, Craig Mundie, Jeff Raikes, Jim Allchin, Orlando Ayala and David Guenther in an effort to compel them to testify in Microsoft's corporate tax audit.

[80] In 2015, he and his wife co-founded Ballmer Group, a philanthropic investment company that aims to help children, particularly those in poor families, achieve economic mobility.

[88] In July 2000, Ballmer called the free software Linux kernel "communism"[89] and further claimed that it infringed with Microsoft's intellectual property.

[94][95] In 2005, Microsoft sued Google for hiring one of its previous vice presidents, Kai-Fu Lee, claiming it was in violation of his one-year non-compete clause in his contract.

[103] On January 9, 2013, Ballmer and Hansen led a group of investors in an attempt to purchase the Sacramento Kings from the Maloof family and relocate them to Seattle for an estimated $650 million.

After a California court confirmed the authority of Shelly Sterling to sell the team, it was announced on August 12, 2014, that Ballmer would become the Los Angeles Clippers owner.

[108] The purchase would allow him to build Intuit Dome in the nearby area since plans for a new Clippers' arena were opposed by the former owners of The Forum.

[110][111] In 2023, ProPublica did another report, about Ballmer's usage of wash sales helped by Goldman Sachs, under the label "Tax Advantaged Loss Harvesting", resulting in tax savings of more than half a billion dollars over 5 years[112][113] As of October 2023, Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates his personal wealth at around $115 billion, making him the fifth-richest person in the world.

[4] On July 1, 2024, Ballmer surpassed Bill Gates to become the sixth-richest person in the world, driven by a 21% rise in Microsoft shares.

[120] Ballmer launched USAFacts.org in 2017, a not-for-profit organization whose goal is to enable people to understand U.S. government revenue, spending and societal impact.