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>>How did this clown end up in charge of Microsoft? How did this clown stay in charge for ~12 years when the rest of the industry kicked Microsoft's ass? The Ballmer years are Microsoft's lost years and this clown is the reason why.
>
>I think it's fair to say there were definitely lost opportunities - but there were certainly areas where MS grew in the industry.

This article explains better than I can why Ballmer was such in incredible failure:

http://www.netnetweb.com/blog/top-10-reasons-why-steve-ballmer-has-failed-microsoft%E2%80%99s-ceo

Here are the bullet points:

1) Ballmer Has an Exceptionally Low Approval Rating.

2) Ballmer Has Led No Real Innovation.

3) Ballmer Squandered Major Market Opportunities.

4) Ballmer has Overseen Dismal Product Releases.

5) Ballmer has made horrible investments. In what can only be seen as an effort to attempt to compensate for Microsoft’s shortcomings in innovation, Ballmer has gambled with increasingly ill-conceived acquisitions.

a. aQuantive. Microsoft recently wrote off $6.2 billion of this $6.3 billion acquisition of this internet ad agency

b. Skype. Microsoft paid $8.5 billion in cash for Skype. Apparently the fact that Skype was not profitable didn’t matter.

c. Yammer. Microsoft recently paid $1.2 billion for Yammer.

6) Ballmer has accomplished nothing.

7) Ballmer has eroded shareholder value.

8) Ballmer Can’t Leverage His Cash.

a. Over the last three years, Microsoft has spent $26 billion on research and development whereas Apple has spent just $5.54 billion. During that time, Apple has been able to produce products that are not only leaps and bounds ahead of anything Microsoft has come up with, they also carry with them a cultural phenomenon that demands a premium value.

9) Ballmer is a Maniac.

a. When compared to the competition, Ballmer looks like a circus show.

10) Ballmer can’t get Microsoft to compete (and win) with consumers.