Outgoing Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer bade his employees goodbye at a staff-only meeting Thursday. And with his trademark fashion, Ballmer danced to Macklamore's "Can't Hold Us" and went off the stage to Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'." Ballmer is known to dance and screech at company events, and proof had been posted on Youtube. According to several Microsoft employees who attended the meeting, Ballmer was his usual upbeat self.
Ballmer also parted words of encouragement to attendees. Quoting from a 1983 meeting, he said, "We have unbelievable potential in front of us, we have an unbelievable destiny. Only our company and a handful of others are poised to write the future. We're going to think big, we're going to bet big."
He didn't mince words with the company's rivals. He said Apple was just being "fashionable," Amazon was about being "cheap," and Google was about "knowing more." He emphasized that his plan for the company's transformation from a software-focused company to an innovative company in devices and services would make Microsoft a powerful company.
Although Ballmer could be credited for the rise of Microsoft's year-per-year revenue from USD25 billion to USD70 billion, he was largely criticized for the company's failures in consumer technologies, especially in smartphones and tablets.
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