Take a while to get his bounce
back
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.