Friday, May 30, 2014

Ballmer has the money for the L.A. Clippers

SAN FRANCISCO — Steve Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft who is buying the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion, certainly has the money for the deal.

Ballmer was Microsoft's 30th employee, beginning at the company in 1980. He was Microsoft's CEO from 2000 until Satya Nadella stepped in earlier this year.

Word of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's planned retirement sent shockwaves through the tech and business community. And on the Internet, users flocked to YouTube to relive the flamboyant CEO's most infamous moments.

As of Microsoft's proxy filed in October, Ballmer held 333.2 million shares. At Thursday's $40.34 close, his shares — 4% of Microsoft's shares — are worth more than $13.4 billion.

One thing Ballmer can expect is a lot of jokes on the theme of Clippy, Microsoft's much-derided animated assistant which was discontinued in 2004.

"New Clipper mascot!" multiple people tweeted.

CONFIRMED: #Clippy officially speaks as new @LAClippers mascot "It looks like you're rooting for a team, how can I help?"

— Vee! (@VLangs) May 30, 2014

Another making the rounds: "I see you're trying to run a basketball franchise, do you need help?" in the much-hated perky style of the Clippy animation. spouted as soon as any new action was undertaken on a PC running it.

Ballmer managed Harvard's football team while he was an undergraduate there, according to the Harvard Crimson.

However, according to a book published in 2000, Bad Boy Balmer: The Man Who Rules Microsoft, it wasn't because he liked football.

The author, Fredric Alan Maxwell, says instead it was part of a larger plan to get into Harvard's prestigious business school.

"He did some research and found the manager of the Harvard football team always seemed to be offered a place at the Harvard Business School the following year," Maxwell wrote. "Therefore, Steve Ballmer became equipment manager of the varsity football team"

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