Customer Reviews

Bad Boy Ballmer : The Man Who Rules Microsoft

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I bought this book, expecting to get a serious description of Steve Ballmer, but it turns out this is just another book in the infamous serie "We who hate/envy Microsoft!". In this book all competitors, such as Sun, Netscape and IBM, is presented as a nice group of companies that all follow the rules, and never offend anyone. At the same time this book says muliple times that Bill G and Steve B run their business as Nazi leaders; the book does comparisons with the war criminal Slobodan Milosovic, and the author does a lot of irrelevant personal comments. This is not what I expect from a serious book - It could have been a very interesting book, if just the author was more neutral. There are a lot of other good books that explains MS and their business methods, if you are interested.

When the name Microsoft is brought up, Bill Gates comes to mind, but few realize how important Steve Ballmer is to Microsoft's success. Ballmer is the current CEO, and he makes things happen at Microsoft. He has passion and truly loves his work. The author writes that the Ballmer's truly extraordinary accomplishment is putting up with Bill Gates because Microsoft's co-founder Paul Allen could not. Gates and Ballmer took the company from 30 to 50,000 employees. They make a perfect combination because Gates is the tech guy and Ballmer is the business guy. This book is a great story of a man that has always been in the shadow of Bill Gates.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

Microsoft's CEO Steven Ballmer is the subject of "Bad Boy Ballmer". It traces Ballmer and Gates friendship back to their days at Harvard University. It uses primarily secondary sources to give a nice rehashing of the Microsoft story. We learn of Ballmer's Jewish heritage, Detroit roots and even have a mention of Robin Williams. We learn of Ballmer's enthusiasm, tearing his vocal cords, ascension to the CEO position, and his arrogance. While technically a biography, it is more a history of Microsoft with Steve Ballmer as the focal point. Read and reviewed by Jimmie A. Kepler.

Fredric ya gotta fan. The book is a gem! Felt like I was looking at a well-cut stone;brilliant light reflecting and refracting on the computer industry and the "bigger than life" it seems men that run it or are run down by it. Hard as a diamond in places and then a soft glow like amber in others because of the wry humor.

Great macro view of the "new evil empire" of Microsoft and a heck of lot more.So now. . .where are you going to train your "lens" next?