14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft's former CEO Steve Ballmer claims he is now an outsider for the company that he led for almost 13 years. Although he still talks with the current leadership, he doesn't get any inside information that Microsoft would not share with any other shareholder.
However, Ballmer agreed to offer his view on Microsoft's recent achievements in various areas, including tablets, gaming, cloud computing and mobile device.
In a recent interview for Business Insider, Steve Ballmer recognized some of Microsoft's latest achievements and what Satya Nadella did with the Surface line, HoloLens, and Xbox since they are “absolutely essential to the company's future.”
Still, he doesn't seem that pleased with how things are developing for Microsoft's mobile division, which he thinks still lacks a clear direction.
“And the company really has to chart a direction in mobile devices. Because if you're going to be mobile-first, cloud-first you really do need to have a sense of what you're doing in mobile devices. I had put the company on a path.”
“The board as I was leaving took the company on a path by buying Nokia, they kind of went ahead with that after I told them I was going to go. The company, between me and the board, had taken that sort of view. Satya, he's certainly changed that. He needs to have a clear path forward. But I'm sure he'll get there,” said Steve Ballmer.
Microsoft's value continues to increase, but the mobile division is still behind
Steve Ballmer continues to be Microsoft's largest individual shareholder, but he's also invested in other major companies such as Twitter.
When asked what he thinks about the fact that his successor Satya Nadella has managed to improve the state of the firm in the last several months, Ballmer claimed that since he's not a seller of the stock, he doesn't care that Microsoft's stock went up 5% after last earnings report.
However, he went on and said that “in many ways I think the company is doing quite a good job.” Unfortunately, not when it comes to mobile devices.