August this year, Steve Ballmer announced his intentions to retire within 12 months. On Thursday, at Seatle’s KeyArena, he had his last event with about 13,000 Microsoft employees.
He didn’t regret joining Microsoft, He made mention of his plan to turn Microsoft’s from just a software company, to a device and services company, which he said will make it, “fundamentally more powerful.”
“We have unbelievable potential in front of us, we have an unbelievable destiny,” said a visibly moved Ballmer, reusing a quote from the 1983 meeting. “Only our company and a handful of others are poised to write the future,” he continued. “We’re going to think big, we’re going to bet big.”
“I believe in you, I believe in the mission,” he told employees, choking up slightly. “We’ve been a great company for years. We will be a great company for many more years.”
He took a quick paw at some rival companies, saying Apple is about being “fashionable”, Amazon.com is about been “cheap”, Google is about “knowing more”, but Microsoft is about “doing more”
Ballmer says Microsoft has a bright future.
