Former Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer made his thoughts known about Microsoft during this year’s annual shareholder’s meeting in Bellevue, Washington. Microsoft didn’t disclose profit margins and sales from its cloud and hardware businesses, which set Ballmer off. Ballmer is Microsoft’s largest individual shareholder; certainly he has a right to be ticked. Microsoft disclosed an annualized revenue run rate, which is a projected rate of growth.
Ballmer voiced his opinion that Microsoft should report the profit margin and sales for its cloud and software services:
“It’s sort of a key metric — if they talk about it as key to the company, they should report it. They should report the revenue, not the run rate, it’s bullshit. Margin — a measure of profitability — is important because while gross margins for software are very high, they are far lower for things like hardware and cloud services.”
At the same shareholder’s meeting, Ballmer voiced his concerns about Windows 10 Mobile and its need to run Android apps in order to be successful. Microsoft’s Project Astoria, the program that would allow Windows 10 Mobile to run Android apps was put on hold indefinitely in November.
