The departure of Bill Gates, who stepped down as chairman of Microsoft on June 27, means Microsoft's helm will now rest with Steve Ballmer after he moved into the corner office vacated by Gates.

Ballmer, 52, has been Microsoft's CEO for the past eight years. He will likely face increasing pressure in the wake of the company's failed attempt to acquire Yahoo Inc., a move that resulted in Yahoo's partnership with Microsoft archrival Google.

In addition, lukewarm customer reception of Microsoft's flagship product, Windows Vista, will likely add to Ballmer's challenges.

It will be the first time that Ballmer must shoulder the weight of the company's success without his college friend who brought him to the company nearly three decades ago.

"The pressure is certainly on," Alan Davis, an analyst at D.A. Davidson said.

Microsoft's executives said Ballmer has strong skills in digesting chunks of data while carefully probing business proposals for weaknesses in logic or reasoning. But his sales and marketing aptitude is a strong complement to Gates' technical acumen.

Gartner analyst Michael Silver described Ballmer's management style as "scary," but also credited him for being a good listener to the needs of customers.

Ballmer became Microsoft's president in 1998 and replacing Gates as CEO in 2000. He is the company's second-largest shareholder after Gates, with a 4.3 percent stake in the company valued at more than 11 billion U.S. dollars.

[Close] [comment]