Ballmer resigns from Microsoft board

Steve Ballmer has resigned from Microsoft's board, eight months after his departure as chief executive officer, ending more than three decades of direct involvement in the world's largest software maker.

Ballmer, 58, remains Microsoft's top individual shareholder. He had initially remained as a director after handing the top job over to one of his deputies, Satya Nadella, in February.

Ballmer recently bought the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion and appeared in front of the team and fans this week, vowing to lift the team to "higher heights" and promising not to micromanage. The former CEO's departure ends a 34-year association with Microsoft, which he led as CEO from 2000 to February 2014.

Revenue tripled under Ballmer’s tenure, even as the Redmond, Washington-based company struggled to compete with Apple and Googlein areas such as mobile phones, tablet computers and internet search. “I want to be a great shareholder and I want to pay appropriate attention to my shares but between teaching classes and my new responsibilities at the Clippers and my civic duties, it’s a lot,” Ballmer said in an interview yesterday. “I love Microsoft.”

Ballmer's exit is the latest change to Microsoft's board. Last month, Microsoft named longtime wireless executive John Stanton to the board. In March, director Steve Luczo stepped down and in February, co-founder Bill Gates stepped aside as chairman to be replaced by lead independent director John Thompson. The board also added activist investor Mason Morfit of ValueAct Holdings LP to its ranks this year.

In a letter to Nadella that was posted on Microsoft’s website yesterday, Ballmer wrote that he would “support and encourage boldness by management in my role as a shareholder in any way I can.”

Nadella thanked Ballmer for his years at the company, saying that the former CEO created an “incredible foundation that we continue to build on.”

Brendan Barnicle, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities LLC, said Ballmer’s exit from the board creates room for Nadella to put more of his stamp on Microsoft. “I think he recognises that it’s very hard for a new CEO to take the reins and have full authority with the old CEO on the board,” Barnicle.

Ballmer joined Microsoft as employee No. 30 in 1980 after Gates persuaded him to drop out of Stanford University’s business school. He rose to the rank of president and then took over for Gates as CEO in 2000. Ballmer became the company’s biggest individual shareholder in May after Gates sold 4.6 million shares of Microsoft.

Ballmer owns 333.3 million shares of Microsoft, 3.48 million more than Gates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Bloomberg