Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer Bubble-Pops at Democratic Policy Confab: The Full Speech

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Here Come Tech Earnings–Or,... from kara.allthingsd.com
Over the next two weeks, tech companies will be reporting their fourth-quarter earnings and the expectations are pretty much what you might imagine: Bad to very bad to very, very bad.That’s bad, of course, because tech has been one of the bright spots in the U.S. economy, with strong returns quarter after quarter for a long time now.But the economic meltdown–which began in the financial sector–has infected everything, including digital companies that have heretofore been healthy and strong. IBM (IBM) kicks off today at 1:30 pm PST with their fourth quarter results. Then tomorrow, it’s eBay (EBAY) and Apple (AAPL) on deck.Obviously, Apple will be of great interest, because of what its execs will say about CEO Steve Jobs, who recently announced he was taking a medical leave due to ongoing health issues. As to eBay, many believe will be the online auction site will report its first quarterly revenue decline in nearly 10 years. Then Thursday comes the two archrival powerhouses, Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT), who are both expected to look a little less powerful.Both are bellwethers, with analysts expecting weaker results, even though they will both probably have the sunniest stories in the very cloudy outlook.Yahoo (YHOO) is another story next week, when new CEO Carol Bartz will get the privilege of delivering what most expect to be a very weak performance. Some analysts are estimating that Yahoo’s results could scrape the bottom of a very well-scraped barrel.Let’s hope, in Yahoo’s case and for others, that it is always darkest before the dawn.
Jan
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Jan 20, 2009
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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made an appearance at the three-day U.S. House of Representatives Democratic Caucus Retreat today to talk about innovation and, let’s be real, the very bad economy and the impact on businesses like the tech giant. Held at the Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Va., the confab has already seen an appearance by President Barack Obama yesterday and one by Vice President Joe Biden this morning. Ballmer got the lunch spot. The annual gathering is more crucial this year, given the pressure to pass the massive economic stimulus package to try to revive the moribund economy. Ballmer was not reassuring. “The bubble has burst,” said Ballmer. “We can no longer rely on consumption by refinancing our homes or inexpensive money to fuel economic growth, and that’s certainly had a huge impact.” And also: “In my view, what we now have will be a fundamental economic reset.” Microsoft (MSFT) should know all about that. The powerful company recently announced week earnings, a foggy outlook and layoffs of 5,000 employees. Here’s Ballmer’s speech to the group: Well, I want to thank Jay, I want to thank the speaker and all of you for the opportunity to be here today and chat with you. It’s a real honor to have a chance to share some thoughts on the economy and on innovation, and hopefully spur some thoughts on how we all participate in restarting long term economic growth. As Jay was telling my story, so to speak, I thought I’d put in one parenthetic that might be of interest. When I got to Microsoft and we were this tiny little company, we didn’t have the budget to put people up in hotels, so I lived with Bill. And every time I sat down, in every corner, nook and cranny of couches, tables, I’d find these little yellow pieces of paper with Bill’s writing that had a bunch of people’s names and companies’ names and numbers. So, finally–I think of myself as
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