Investor calls for (Microsoft's) Ballmer's head -- but who will replace him?

[Renew Deal]

Yesterday Greenlight Capital President David Einhorn -- who controls $5 billion of investor money -- tore Steve Ballmer a new aperture. "It's time for Microsoft's board to tell Steve Ballmer, 'All right, we see what you can do, let's give so-and-so a chance.'" One has to wonder which so-and-so Einhorn had in mind.

As of March 31, Greenlight held 9 million shares of Microsoft stock worth about $220 million, or about 0.1 percent of the total. Bill Gates owns 561 million shares and Ballmer owns 333 million shares -- almost 11 percent of the company, or 100 times as many shares as Greenlight -- so a shareholder fight doesn't seem imminent. I think Einhorn has a subtler plan in mind.

Einhorn's pronouncements and explanation won't come as a surprise to anyone who's been watching Microsoft's stock or its latest corporate machinations.

Microsoft cognoscenti have been calling for Ballmer's resignation for years, with numerous examples cited: the old Vista fiasco, the 2008 Yahoo takeover that didn't go through (billed at the time as a "failure" but now widely accepted as a blessing), laggard Office 2007 sales.
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http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/investor-calls-ballmers-head-who-will-replace-him-326

[sharp_stick]

1. So this is how he's

planning to raise the money to buy into the New York Mets.... The Mets, how can anyone in their right mind take this guy's investment advice seriously if he's willing to sink cash into the Mets, I mean at least it's not going to the stinking Yankees but dude at least try to get a team that pretends to want to play ball.

;-)