Regime Change: Steve Ballmer Has Finally Resigned From Microsoft’s Board

WIRED

When Steve Ballmer resigned as CEO of Microsoft last February, he didn’t leave the company entirely. The 58-year-old executive retained his seat on the Microsoft board. But now, after 34 years with the company, Ballmer is finally moving on.

“Microsoft has been my life’s work and I am proud of that and excited by what I see in front of the company and this leadership team,” Ballmer wrote in an open letter to new CEO Satya Nadella announcing his resignation from the board, published on the company website today. “There are challenges ahead but the opportunities are even larger.”

Steve Ballmer. Microsoft

The move is yet another sign that Nadella, who has been CEO for just under six months now, is well and truly in charge of a new Microsoft, a Microsoft that is quickly moving away from the attitudes and strategies it fostered for more than 10 years under Ballmer.

Microsoft has been rebranding itself under Nadella’s leadership, starting with initiatives that would have been unthinkable on Ballmer’s watch, such as releasing Microsoft Office for iPad and, even more radically, announcing a free version of Windows for devices with screens smaller than nine inches and open sourcing the bulk of its developer tools.

Nadella has also jettisoned Ballmer’s “devices and services” tagline, rebranding Microsoft as the “productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world,” in a somewhat muddled memo last month.

Many of these changes were likely begun months ago, when Ballmer was still CEO, but as ex-employees point out, it’s no coincidence that they came to a head under Nadella’s watch. Now, more than ever, Nadella will have the freedom to move forward with his new strategy. He’ll also have to carry the weight of Microsoft’s massive layoffs on his own.

As for Ballmer, he’ll be busy teaching classes this fall, and just last week, he completed his much-discussed acquisition of the Los Angeles Clippers NBA basketball franchise. We’ll all miss the rather unique antics Ballmer brought to Microsoft, but you can bet that much of this will resurface in the NBA.