Microsoft's Ballmer challenges Vanity Fair's 'lost decade' claim

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Did Microsoft lose itself over the past decade? Its CEO obviously doesn't think so.

In a Forbes interview published yesterday, Steve Ballmer was asked about the recent Vanity Fair article that charged poor management and bureaucracy at Microsoft with hurting the company financially and technologically over the past ten years.

Ballmer's response?

"It's not been a lost decade for me! I mean, look, ultimately progress is measured sort of through the eyes of our users," he told Forbes. "More than our investors or our P&L [profit and loss] or anything else, it's through the eyes of our users. We have 1.3 billion people using PCs today. There was a time in the '90s when we were sure there would never be 100 million PCs sold a year. Now there will be 375 million sold this year alone. So, is it a lost decade?"

Ballmer also alluded to Microsoft's stock price, which has languished in the high 20s and low 30s over the past decade after a high of around $60 per share.

"The stock market has always had its own meter," Ballmer said. "Sometimes... [Read more]