Steve Ballmer steps down as board member at Microsoft

Re:Steve Ballmer steps down as board member at Microsoft by barkingcat on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @02:24PM (#8198931)

two pr teams talking to each other.

I would have written:

Steve to Satya: I love Microsoft, and I feel like I can trust you to take on the world for me. Microsoft must live. Here, take some seasons tickets for the Clippers.

Satya to Steve: Hey dude, I need to make Microsoft faster, leaner, and stronger. I'm glad I passed the 1st date test with you and the rest of the board. I'll take those seasons tickets now.

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Re:Steve Ballmer steps down as board member at Microsoft by chimeracoder on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @02:27PM (#8198950)

Honestly, quite possibly the same PR team drafted both letters.

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Re:Steve Ballmer steps down as board member at Microsoft by hnnewguy on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @02:44PM (#8199048)

>quite possibly the same PR team drafted both letters.

How cynical are you people that you don't think long-time corporate executives can sit down and write a professional, "safe" sounding, 500 word resignation letter?

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Re:Steve Ballmer steps down as board member at Microsoft by jerf on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @04:54PM (#8199765)

Why do you think that we think that's what happened because the two executives "can't"?

I think it happened because both had lawyers looking it over due to the fact both are operating in the heavily regulated space of high-level officers in one of the world's largest publicly traded companies, and it would be suicidally stupid to not have lawyers looking over your every official utterance... and while the words are in the lawyers hands, the PR department might as well have a go too, since it's not a hard guess to think this could go mobile-first, cloud-first... er... public.

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Re:Steve Ballmer steps down as board member at Microsoft by kaonashi on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @05:10PM (#8199845)

It's not whether or not he can, it's whether or not he did.

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Re:Steve Ballmer steps down as board member at Microsoft by grayclhn on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @11:57PM (#8201031)

I think they can. I also think it's not a good use of their time.

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Re:Steve Ballmer steps down as board member at Microsoft by blueskin_ on Wednesday August 20, 2014 @05:17AM (#8201627)

Why do that when they can pay someone else to?

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[deleted]

Re:Steve Ballmer steps down as board member at Microsoft by jacquesm on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @03:40PM (#8199343)

Poorly written? 'then him'? 'bolness'? Funny.

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Re:Steve Ballmer steps down as board member at Microsoft by Arnor on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @05:46PM (#8200000)

This comment thread should be in the HN hall of fame. Classic :)

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Re:Steve Ballmer steps down as board member at Microsoft by chasingtheflow on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @03:52PM (#8199415)

Reading this, "No company in the world has the mix of software skills, cloud skills, and hardware skills we have assembled", only got me thinking of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gosFtO6504

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Re:Steve Ballmer steps down as board member at Microsoft by heropotato on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @02:28PM (#8198959)

Possibly, written by the same person.

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Re:Steve Ballmer steps down as board member at Microsoft by thedaveoflife on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @04:25PM (#8199587)

This is such a ridiculous scenario that I hope it's how it actually happened.

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Re:Steve Ballmer steps down as board member at Microsoft by TeMPOraL on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @05:14PM (#8199873)

Somebody at MS PR is having a good laugh with friends over beers now.

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Re:Steve Ballmer steps down as board member at Microsoft by UVB-76 on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @05:49PM (#8200017)

> Honestly, ...

I see what you did there!

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Re:Steve Ballmer steps down as board member at Microsoft by heropotato on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @02:26PM (#8198942)

Exactly true.

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[deleted]

Re:Steve Ballmer steps down as board member at Microsoft by yuhong on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @02:40PM (#8199018)

I think Satya is known for doing that.

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