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Ballmer Bashers Can't Have It Both Ways

Posted May 05, 2008 01:59pm EDT by Aaron Task in Investing, Internet, Newsmakers, Venture Capital, M and A, IPOs
Related: YHOO, MSFT, GOOG, CSCO
Jerry Yang isn't the only tech exec in the hot seat today.

The (apparent) demise of the Microsoft-Yahoo negotiations has also brought a lot of criticism down on Steve Ballmer, including reports in both Valley Wag and Tech Crunch that this episode could cost Ballmer his job.

Clearly, Ballmer made some tactical errors - most notably threatening to lower the bid for Yahoo and then shortly thereafter reversing course and letting it be known Microsoft would pay more than $31 per share for Tech Ticker's parent.

Also, The Wall Street Journal reports on a Microsoft offsite in March where Ballmer apparently confused some senior Microsoft executives about his true intentions with Yahoo.

Arguably pursuing Yahoo in the first place was a strategic error on Ballmer's part. Critics say Ballmer is obsessed with fighting Google over search, a war it has already lost, when the company should instead be focused on how to protect its core Office and Windows businesses given the shift to cloud computing.

Yes, the onus is on Ballmer now to come up with a viable Plan B for Microsoft's online effort. But if he was a fool for offering $31 a share for Yahoo, shouldn't Ballmer be praised, rather than skewered, for refusing to pay more and walking away?

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