A CEO gets to take credit for anything good that happens during his tenure? MSFT succeeded in areas where it already had a foothold through inertia, in spite of Ballmer, not because of him. Meanwhile, it completely failed in areas like mobile where it was initiating its presence. As recently as 2011, Wall Street was calling for him to be replaced [1], and I imagine now they're all breathing a cautious sigh of relief.

[1] http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20075745-75/microsofts-bal... http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-27/einhorn-adds-to-dru...