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by ikono 5496 days ago
I can't stand Ballmer but I don't think he's going anywhere soon. Some quick math says that Ballmer and Gates own about a third of Microsoft combined. It'd be very hard to push either of them out against their combined will.

And while I'm sympathetic to the notion that anyone would be better than Ballmer, it really is hard to find a good CEO.

1 comments

> Some quick math says that Ballmer and Gates own about a third of Microsoft combined.

Incorrect. They own about 6.7%. See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2587008

Also incorrect. They own about 10.7%. See the comment on the comment you link to.
That's pretty fascinating. I just assumed that the majority of their net wealth was in the form of MSFT shares. I'm now very curious what the other 2/3s of their net worth is held in.

You can see them steadily selling off shares here: http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/own-disp?action=getissuer&CIK...

It's very common for executives to sell shares on a regular (non-secret) schedule to avoid claims of insider trading or false news about "Bill Gates selling stock; MSFT must be in trouble!"