Steve Ballmer
American businessman and investor
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| July 1 2024 | On July 1, 2024, Steve Ballmer surpassed Bill Gates to become the sixth-richest person in the world, following a 21% rise in Microsoft shares, bringing his net worth to $157.2 billion. |
| 2023 | ProPublica published a report detailing how Steve Ballmer's usage of wash sales, facilitated by Goldman Sachs under the label 'Tax Advantaged Loss Harvesting', resulted in tax savings of more than half a billion dollars over five years. |
| December 2023 | CNN estimated that Steve Ballmer was set to collect $1 billion in dividends from his Microsoft stock ownership, following an announcement of an increase in the company's dividend. |
| 2022 | Ballmer donated $425 million to the University of Oregon to fund a new institute for children's behavioral health. |
| 2021 | ProPublica documented how Steve Ballmer is using his ownership of various sports teams as a means to lower his federal income tax to as low as 12%, in contrast to around 35% for the athletes on his teams. |
| December 2020 | In a survey conducted by The Athletic, Steve Ballmer was voted the best owner in basketball, highlighting his positive reputation within the sport. |
| March 2020 | Steve Ballmer agreed to purchase The Forum in Inglewood, California, which would enable him to build the Intuit Dome nearby, as his plans for a new Clippers' arena faced opposition from the former owners of The Forum. |
| 2017 | Ballmer contributed $10 million to fund teams of researchers who populated the USAFacts.org database with official government data. |
| 2017 | Steve Ballmer launched USAFacts.org, a not-for-profit organization aimed at helping people understand U.S. government revenue, spending, and societal impact. |
| 2016 | Ballmer revisited his previous comments on the iPhone, explaining that his skepticism was due to the high upfront cost, not understanding that phone carriers would subsidize the price. |
| November 2016 | In an interview, Ballmer stated that he and Gates had 'drifted apart' and attributed this to his push into the hardware business, particularly smartphones, which Gates did not support. |
| March 2016 | Ballmer publicly changed his stance on Linux, expressing support for his successor Satya Nadella's open source commitments, stating that while his 2001 comments were contextually correct, times had changed. |
| 2015 | Ballmer referred to Microsoft's decision to invest in Apple in 1997 as the 'craziest thing we ever did' after Apple became the world's most valuable company. |
| 2015 | Steve Ballmer and his wife co-founded Ballmer Group, a philanthropic investment company focused on helping children in poor families achieve economic mobility. |
| December 24 2014 | The Seattle Times reported that the IRS sued Ballmer and several other former Microsoft executives in an effort to compel them to testify in Microsoft's corporate tax audit. |
| November 13 2014 | Ballmer announced a $60 million gift to Harvard University's computer science department to help hire new faculty and increase the program's national stature. |
| November 12 2014 | Steve Ballmer and his wife Connie donated $50 million to the University of Oregon, which will focus on scholarships, public health research and advocacy, and external branding/communications. |
| October 2014 | A Vanity Fair profile reported that Ballmer and Gates no longer spoke to each other due to animosity over Ballmer's resignation from Microsoft. |
| September 25 2014 | Steve Ballmer stated that he would bar the Los Angeles Clippers from using Apple products, such as iPads, and replace them with Microsoft products, reflecting his commitment to his company's technology. |
| August 19 2014 | Steve Ballmer stepped down from Microsoft's board of directors. |
| August 19 2014 | Left Microsoft's board of directors, completely ending his formal association with the company. |
| August 12 2014 | It was officially announced that Steve Ballmer would become the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers after a California court confirmed the authority of Shelly Sterling to sell the team. |
| May 2014 | In the aftermath of the Donald Sterling scandal, Steve Ballmer emerged as the highest bidder to purchase the Los Angeles Clippers for a reported $2 billion, which was at the time the second-highest bid for a sports franchise in North American sports history. |
| February 4 2014 | Steve Ballmer retired as CEO of Microsoft and was succeeded by Satya Nadella. |
| 2013 | Steve Ballmer declared that Google was a 'monopoly' and should face pressure from market competition authorities. |
| September 2013 | Ballmer announced Microsoft's purchase of Nokia's mobile phone division, marking his last major acquisition as CEO. |
| September 2013 | Ballmer hosted his last company meeting before retiring from Microsoft. |
| August 23 2013 | Microsoft announced that Steve Ballmer would retire within the next 12 months. |
| January 9 2013 | Steve Ballmer and Chris R. Hansen led a group of investors in an attempt to purchase the Sacramento Kings from the Maloof family for an estimated $650 million and relocate them to Seattle. This attempt, however, fell through. |
| 2012 | Businessweek noted that under Ballmer's supervision, Microsoft arguably had the best product lineup in its history after he oversaw a significant management restructuring. |
| June 2012 | Steve Ballmer became an investor in Chris R. Hansen's proposal to build a new arena in the SoDo neighborhood of Seattle with the aim of bringing the SuperSonics back to the city. |
| June 19 2012 | Ballmer unveiled Microsoft's first computer device, a tablet called Microsoft Surface, at an event in Hollywood, Los Angeles. |
| May 2012 | Hedge fund manager David Einhorn publicly called for Ballmer to step down as CEO of Microsoft, criticizing his leadership. |
| 2011 | During the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Steve Ballmer expressed skepticism about Android phones, stating that using a Windows Phone does not require one to be a computer scientist, unlike Android phones. |
This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia article Steve Ballmer, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.