During a Microsoft staff meeting at Seattle’s KeyArena on September 26th, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer gave his final presentation, touting the company’s future and being emotional the entire time.
“We have unbelievable potential in front of us, we have an unbelievable destiny. Only our company and a handful of others are poised to write the future. We’re going to think big, we’re going to bet big,” an emotional Steve Ballmer stated during the meeting.
Ballmer made his entrance to the employee-only meeting with the song “Can’t Hold Us” and spoke to thousands of full-time Microsoft employees during the all-day event. Ballmer spoke about his past, how he told his parents he was dropping out of Stanford’s business school to join Microsoft. Ballmer also touted the new devices and services vision for the company.
Ballmer took shots at company rivals, stating that Apple is about being “fashionable,” Amazon.com is about being “cheap,” Google is about “knowing more,” but Microsoft is about “doing more.”
“I believe in you, I believe in the mission. We’ve been a great company for years. We will be a great company for many more years,” Ballmer emotionally stated.
Ballmer, who recently revealed he was retiring as Microsoft’s CEO, received a standing ovation at the end of his presentation. “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin'” by Michael Jackson, which was a song Ballmer used back in 1983 for his first company meting, and “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” were two of the songs that were played as he made his departure from the event.
