> Maybe when Ballmer is dead and buried.

That is totally uncalled for.

Wonder if this is a regional sort of thing? This reads like a pretty harmless colloquial saying to me, not anything inappropriate.

Lol. Balmer personally got involved with all M&A activities over $2m, which is why MS lost out on many deals... m&a and investing are themselves lifestyle business models because there are a very small number of people with the exceptional experience and good judgement about businesses and they have limited time to evaluate prospects. If VC and angel investing were scalable, it would be possible to have a few shops monopolize deals to a far greater degree and they would do tons of deals. But they can’t because of the support and other resources also provided from good VC shops.

The use of a common idiom is uncalled for? Over my dead body!

It's common when it's my (the speaker's) dead body, not someone else's body, particularly when you refer to them by name.

I agree that the first-person usage is more common, relatively speaking.

How often have you seen that idiom after some person's name?

Often.

But either way I don't get why that usage has triggered you. It's not like he's advocating for someone's death; he is clearly conveying his view about Ballmer's desire to influence Microsoft and the degree of conviction he believes Ballmer has in this regard.

Perhaps if English is not your first language, this word usage might seem strange or unpleasant. I assure you it's not.

With these types of idioms the subject is always going to be a person's name, or a personal pronoun. If there's no name attached it's most likely referencing an unnamed pet or wild animal.