Delightfully understated Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer expects to have to deal with a weak economy for at least the next several years.

He said that he is planning essentially for the economy to contract and it might take two, three, four years, partly depending on government policy to ease some of the pain. Then the world will see growth again.

Microsoft has been feeling a bit of pain lately as the outfits  quarterly revenue fell from the previous year for the first time in its 23-year history as a public company, while its profit dived 32 percent. It has made layoffs in most of its areas other than R&D.

However Ballmer added that Microsoft was continuing to look for ways to compete with Google, and suggested his company was in a good position. Microsoft is no longer interested in acquiring Yahoo, but there was shedloads of scope for a partnership which could earn the two companies a lot of dosh.