One for all Ballmer predicts Microsoft will not be split
Special report: the future of Microsoft
Julia Finch
Saturday June 9, 2001
The Guardian
Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, yesterday said he was confident the global software company would not be forced to split in two.
A ruling from the US appeals court is expected soon on an earlier judgment which found Microsoft had breached competition laws. It was ordered to split its operations.
Microsoft appealed against the decision and Mr Ballmer, pictured above at a recent conference in Las Vegas, said: "We remain confident that we will remain one integrated company and will be able to continue to add more capabilities to Windows. The laws are clear."
US president George Bush is said to be much less hostile to Microsoft than his predecessor and Mr Ballmer said: "We have a good relationship, which we are very excited about, with the Bush administration".
He also ruled out any job losses at Microsoft, instead pledging growth. "We will have more people working for us. We have no need for lay-offs, let alone the draconian lay-offs some in our industry have had to do."
Mr Ballmer, who took the Microsoft reins when founder Bill Gates stepped aside to concentrate on software development last year, has been on a whirlwind trip round Europe over the past week, taking in Portugal, Turkey, Finland and Britain.
In Finland he was trying to forge closer links with the market-leading mobile phone manufacturer Nokia. In Portugal he announced the world's first broadband interactive cable TV service and then he was the main speaker at a Digital Britain summit in London.
Yesterday he was peering into the future, and the company which once had a mission "to put a computer on every desk in every home" is now predicting a world where individuals have handheld, TV and desktop PCs.
He said there might be more cellphone-based units than desktops in 10 years, but it was desktops that would still generate the profits. "The ability to make profits is related to the price of the device", he said. Portable PCs "could be bigger in units in 10 years, but they won't be bigger in revenue or profit".
He admitted the US case on unfair competition had cost the company dear. That meant "tens of millions of dollars".
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