Why Microsoft Paid This Guy $112 Billion (World's 'Luckiest' Billionaire)

3% Deposit Bonus - Lock In 7.39% Yield

Steve Ballmer is often described to be the world’s luckiest billionaire as he managed to not just become a billionaire but a centi-billionaire. And what was his big contribution to the world? Well, many would say that it was just being dormmates with Bill Gates. You see, his friendship with Bill would eventually get him a job at Microsoft along with 8% equity in the company which has obviously made him extraordinarily rich. But, the reality is that Steve’s contribution to Microsoft is a lot more nuanced than just being friends with Bill. One of his biggest contributions happened right after he joined when he helped Bill negotiate the deal of his life with IBM. Microsoft somehow convinced IBM to let Microsoft keep ownership and distribution rights to an upcoming OS that they were building at IBM’s request. This OS is what would eventually turn into Windows and make Microsoft the software juggernaut that we know today. Eventually, Steve would also become CEO of Microsoft and though the stock didn’t do so great under his leadership, Microsoft’s revenue and profits tripled. This video explains why Steve Ballmer was more important to Microsoft than most people give him credit for and how he turned that value into over $100 billion.

Earn Interest From The Government & Top Corporations:
(iOS App for US Residents)

Free Weekly Newsletter With Insiders:

Socials:

Discord Community:

Timestamps:
0:00 - Steve Ballmer
3:01 - Near Miss
6:37 - Proving His Worth
10:10 - Steve’s Legacy

Resources:

Disclaimer:
This video is not a solicitation or personal financial advice. All investing involves risk. Please do your own research.

[willg]

Steve has 112 billion reasons not to care what people think

[jeetmehta]

He's the most underrated billionaire,
He launched Xbox, Azure, Office 365 and windows 7,
Currently Microsoft most revenues are from Xbox, azure and 365 so maybe a little bit research will make you realise he's earned every penny of those billions.

[RFGSwiss]

if you listen to the really bright microsoft guys from the 90-2000 era, you realize, every single one of them admire steve. he sure does deserve his stock.

[JatinSanghvi]

I work for Microsoft. Whenever the conversation about Microsoft history opens up, I get to hear that Satya saved the company that was on the road towards failure, and I need to defend Ballmer and remind them of Azure, XBox, and various developer frameworks and SDK that started those days. Windows Phone did not succeed, but it was an OS with a fresh design never seen elsewhere. I somehow feel that we stopped taking huge risky bets after Ballmer and all our focus and attention is dedicated towards improving on stock value.

[hyperturbotechnomike]

developers, developers, developers, developers

[owqxdsk]

You don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.

[Poppavelli]

Realistically he was given an 8% share of the company before it was worth 1 billion dollars. He could have taken that money out a lot sooner and it would have been worth a lot less than 112 billion dollars. So after the vesting period of the shares he was given, he deserves his fortune as much as any other investor.

[rishavrakshit]

As someone who's an employee at Microsoft, Steve cared immensely for his workforce & was extemely loved. He's also the person who signed off on the idea of Azure, which is Microsoft biggest revenue source today.

[Cyrila]

People love to crap on Balmer but he was instrumental in some key changes to MS that were way overdue under Gates. Vista is seen as his biggest failure but it needed to happen. MS's security model was a disaster before Vista and when he took over Vista was already 5 years late. Add to that their total lack of innovation on the phone and tablet OS having sat on CE for a decade and being sideswiped by the iPhone he was in a really tough spot. Despite all these setbacks he still managed to increase sales and drive revenue. Sure he did it at the expense of the stock price but he still did it. He then set up his successor as the saviour of microsoft with Azure, windows 10 and Windows 10 phone, oh wait scratch that last one.

To Microsoft Steve Balmer is very much the hero they needed not the one they deserved.

Edit. I couldn't remember the word "blindsided" and I agonized at that point in my comment and ended up using "sideswiped". It came to me just now so I am editing the comment but I don't like revisionist history and as such am not editing what I wrote but instead adding this edit clarifying my intention

[jeetmehta]

If you're a ceo for 1 and a half decade and people say you're lucky then they've no idea the hell they went through just to make sure everything looks great and stays great.
He was behind Xbox, azure, windows 7 and office 365.
And he was lucky lol.

[Staticshock-rdlv]

He got a perfect score on the Putnam(hardest math exam in the world/US) and went to Harvard lucky is an understatement the man was a genius from the start

[prosperakwo]

Steve Baller was the "Louis Litt" of Microsoft... Nice one

[sunxnes]

You, Modern MBA and How Money Works are all anyone needs to watch to understand business both from the past and in today's climate.

[DannerBanks]

Really appreciate this analysis. He certainly suffers from a poor public image due to his antics, but he is smart nonetheless.

[Deriv]

Steve Balmer one of the few examples of bleeding for a company actually paying off. Becoming a multi billionaire and owning your own NBA team soon your own arena in Los Angeles that pretty nice life if you can get it

[tokesalotta]

Tech media loved to hate on Microsoft and Ballmer. Short sellers also did their part claiming the era of the PC and Microsoft was over. I took the opportunity wah back then to gobble up as much MSFT stock as I could. Anyone could see that they were making big money with big margins. Plus, they were investing in the cloud. Also, Ballmar was the one who found and promoted Satya

[adrixshadow]

What's lucky is Microsoft having that guy.

[PhilipMurphyExtra]

From this video, I can tell he liked developers a lot

[mechajay]

Developers, Developers, Developers!
Whatever your thoughts on Ballmer, there's no deying he was an very entertaining CEO.

[satyris]

"chief cook and bottle-washer" is an idiom meaning someone forced to do all tasks because of a lack of assistance. Great profile of Ballmer, thank you.