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Former Microsoft<\/a> CEO Steve Ballmer turns 68 years old today, and the sixth richest person in the world has a lot to celebrate.<\/p>\n With a net worth of about $148 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index<\/a>, Ballmer is now just shy of overtaking his old boss, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who sits at $154 billion.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n A look back at Ballmer\u2019s illustrious career reveals the secrets behind his success, but it wasn\u2019t always so glamorous. At 24, Ballmer dropped out of Stanford Business School to join Microsoft and Gates, his former Harvard classmate. As the company\u2019s 30th employee, Ballmer netted a base salary of $50,000<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The small tech startup quickly became one America\u2019s fastest-growing companies, overtaking the incumbent Apple<\/a> and dominating the growth of personal computers in the 1990s by developing Windows, an easy-to-use operating system. Ballmer took over for Gates during a key moment of transition, in 2000, managing through the aftermath of a famous antitrust case<\/a> that dated back to 1998, as well as the aftermath of the dot-com crash and the emergence of fierce competition<\/a> from rivals both new and old: Google<\/a> and Apple.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ballmer tripled Microsoft\u2019s annual revenue to nearly $78 billion during his tenure, and profits swelled to $22 billion during his last full fiscal year as CEO, but the stock didn\u2019t reflect its dominance. In retrospect, Ballmer set the stage for a stunning comeback<\/a> in the decades since. Microsoft now ranks 13th on the Fortune 500, <\/a>while its market capitalization has conquered all others: It\u2019s the most valuable company in the world, at $3.2 trillion.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ballmer still holds an estimated 4.5% stake<\/a> in Microsoft, and has seen its value soar even further, following his successor Satya Nadella\u2019s bet<\/a> on OpenAI. In 2021, Ballmer became the ninth person in the world<\/a> to report a net worth of more than $100 billion, and Ballmer is the only centibillionaire to make his fortune as an employee<\/a>, not as an entrepreneur.\u00a0<\/p>\n After thanking employees for the \u201ctime of my life\u201d in an emotional farewell presentation<\/a> in 2014, Ballmer set his sights on other entrepreneurial adventures. The same year, he bought<\/a> the NBA\u2019s Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion (Forbes now values<\/a> the franchise at over $4.5 billion).\u00a0<\/p>\n Since leaving Microsoft, Ballmer has leaned heavily into philanthropy. He donated nearly $2 billion to a donor-advised Goldman Sachs Philanthropy fund<\/a> focused on economic mobility in 2018. More recently, he invested $400 million to support Black-owned businesses<\/a> in 2022; $43 million<\/a> in the early childhood education workforce in Washington State last March; and last September he announced a $175 million investment<\/a> over the next seven years, aimed at helping 4 million young people, especially in communities of color who face systemic inequalities, along the path to economic mobility.\u00a0<\/p>\n In one of his final interviews as Microsoft\u2019s CEO in 2013, Ballmer sat down with Fortune<\/em><\/a> to share some of his biggest tips for success.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf the CEO doesn\u2019t see the playing field, nobody else can,\u201d Ballmer said in the 2013 interview with Fortune<\/em>. \u201cThe team may need to see it too, but the CEO really needs to be able to see the entire competitive space.\u201d<\/p>\n Microsoft\u2019s variety of products, like cloud services and personal computing, touch a lot of different markets and competition seems to lurk around every corner. During his stint as CEO, he faced criticism<\/a> for not adapting quickly enough to changing market trends. Competitors in mobile devices, like Samsung<\/a> and Nokia<\/a>, and cloud computing services, like Google and Apple, were on the rise. Microsoft\u2019s stock was stagnating<\/a> in the years leading to his retirement in 2014. Still, Microsoft\u2019s revenue nearly quadrupled<\/a> under his watch.<\/p>\n While at Microsoft, Ballmer hired some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley, like Steven Sinofksy<\/a>, who headed Windows; J Allard, who served as chief technology officer of Xbox; and Ray Ozzie<\/a>, Microsoft\u2019s chief software architect.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a 2009 interview<\/a> with the Wall Street Journal<\/em>, Ballmer said in order \u201cto be dynamic,\u201d companies should aim to promote internal workers \u201c70% or 80% of the time,\u201d and when a company wants to take on outside hires, they should be \u201copen-minded\u201d and ask for references.\u00a0<\/p>\n In interviews for potential new hires, the two biggest qualities he looks for are passion that he \u201ccan see in the eyes,\u201d and someone he can relate to. One of his favorite questions to ask is \u201ctell me about something you\u2019re proud of.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n At Microsoft, the name of Ballmer\u2019s game was rethink, rethink, rethink.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a day when people said all the money is in software; get out of hardware,\u201d he told Fortune<\/em> in 2013. Hardware was what Apple and Samsung, Microsoft\u2019s biggest rivals at the time, were also profitable in. In 2013, Apple recorded<\/a> 170.9 billion in revenue. Google recorded<\/a> $55.5 billion. \u201cThen somebody will say, \u2018oh, it\u2019s all about advertising,\u2019\u201d which is what its rival, Google, was making bank on.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe playing field is always changing,\u201d he said, and the sentiment holds true in his current endeavors on the basketball court.\u00a0<\/p>\n A decade after buying the Clippers, Ballmer is still thinking creatively about how to revamp the franchise<\/a>. He\u2019s been signing\u2013and retaining\u2013superstars<\/a> like Kawhi Leonard<\/a>, Paul George<\/a>, and Russell Westbrook<\/a> to form a quartet of stars in preparation for the Intuit<\/a> Dome grand opening<\/a> in August, Forbes reported<\/a>, the team\u2019s future home court and the setting of the 2026 NBA All-Star weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\n This month, he launched a new brand<\/a>, Halo Sports and Entertainment<\/em>, which will feature the new dome, the LA Clippers, their G-league affiliate team<\/a> called the Ontario Clippers, and KIA Forum<\/a>, a music and entertainment arena in Inglewood, which he purchased in 2020<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cGetting the big things right that make all the money, that\u2019s long cycle,\u201d Ballmer told Fortune<\/em> in 2013, emphasizing that \u201creally executing in a way that allows you to do it, that\u2019s short cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the long-term projects he\u2019s chipped away at is USAFacts<\/a>, a database that collects and analyzes how federal, state and local governments generate revenue and spend money. The database also includes reports users can run to gather information on topics ranging from tax rates to rates of overdoses and crime across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n The site brands itself as a \u201cnon-partisan, not-for-profit civic initiative,\u201d with no \u201cpolitical agenda or commercial motive.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI obviously understand the business stuff better than the technology stuff,\u201d Ballmer concluded in the 2013 interview, but adding, \u201cI\u2019ve grown, and when you grow, you say, \u2018Wow, I didn\u2019t know what I didn\u2019t know.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n One joke theory related to his limitations has cropped up: it\u2019s what Urban Dictionary calls the Ballmer Peak,<\/a> or the \u201ctheory that computer programmers obtain quasi-magical, superhuman coding ability when they have a blood alcohol concentration percentage between 0.129% and 0.138%.\u201d The theory is loosely tied to Ballmer\u2014but has inspired a San Francisco organization, Originate<\/a>, to organize a Ballmer Peak-A-Thon<\/a>: an open bar event<\/a> where people have \u201c5 hours to find the elusive Ballmer peak, and build the best worst business possible.\u201d The bar provides \u201cplenty of sill domain names\u201d to kick off the party.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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