Who doesn't know the "Steve Ballmer - I Love This Company" video? If you missed it so far, here you go! I bet he does, since I have no doubt about Microsoft's generosity, when it comes to its own CEO, but I am sure a lot of people are asking themselves - when is he going to step out of the spotlight and leave someone else at the helm? Good question, but I am afraid the answer might be that Steve Ballmer will be the one leading Microsoft until his death...or pretty close to that final hour! ;)


Before moving on to the latest details about the main question of the day, I think I should try to answer some of the frequently asked questions about Steve Ballmer. Born in 1956, he has been the CEO of Microsoft since January 2000, and is the second person, after Roberto Goizueta, to become a billionaire in US dollars based on stock options as an employee of a corporation. Married with one children, Ballmer got the 43rd position in Forbes 2008 World's Richest People ranking, with an estimated wealth of $15 billion. Any other questions? Oh, yeah, if you're one of those wondering about Steve Ballmer's salary, you may be disappointed. Why? Take a look here to find out more!

Now, if we leave all the above aside, hearing Steve Ballmer shout or seeing him dance can compensate the blue screens some people get in certain situations, <-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->just as it happened when Bill Gates got creamed by a pie!

First interesting report is coming from ZDNet's Mary-Jo Foley: "Last time CEO Steve Ballmer offered a tentative timeframe as to when he might retire from Microsoft, he put the date at ten years or so from now (around the time his youngest goes to college)."

Well, ten years wouldn't be that much, but the funny twist is that Foley also said that, "According to scuttlebutt from Microsoft’s annual employee meeting, which was held in Seattle on September 18, Ballmer told attendees that he is going to stay on at Microsoft until Microsoft’s search share exceeds Google’s."

Considering that Google's shares are going up, and Microsoft is slowly going downhill, Steve Ballmer may need to stay around for more than just 10 years, but it's not the time that really matters. He really needs to find a winning strategy for Microsoft, because things are not looking that great, as we speak...

Love him or hate him, it seems Steve Ballmer is here to stay. Maybe he really loves the company, but what would you do, if you were in his place? Just one quick overview of "my strategy as Ballmer," and I'll be off - instantly stop the silly advertising campaign for Vista, push as much money as possible into the next-gen OS, and try to listen to my customers more. I really think that offering support for Windows XP once again would benefit more than keeping to push Vista around, but that's just my opinion, so let me hear yours!

When thinking about the antivirus market, my head usually starts spinning pretty fast, simply because I think this is one of the most profitable areas for those working on Windows software. Viruses, spyware, phishing, spam, and so many more dangers lurking in the dark corners of the Web, they are all waiting to take over your computer, so it's no surprise there are so many companies involved in this, and most of them are doing a pretty good job. McAfee is one of them, and since the big fish always eats the little one in this industry, they decided to buy Secure Computing before anyone else would have thought about it...

OK, so we all know about McAfee and its products, but what about Secure Computing? If you don't want to bother visiting their website, here's how they describe themselves - "Secure Computing provides Internet security appliances and software solutions that proactively protect businesses against email and Web threats like viruses, spam, malware and network intrusion, as well as regulations / compliance risks." Their products include Webwasher, a tool for filtering corporate Web traffic, the Ironmail encrypted mail servers, as well as Sidewinder firewall appliances and SnapGear VPN devices.

According to the official press release, the expectations McAfee has from this deal worth about $465 million are the following:

- With Secure Computing, McAfee expects to become one of the largest network security players, delivering the industry’s most complete network security solution to businesses of all sizes, extending the success of its total protection<-180x150 Small Rectangle - right-> strategy through best of breed technology suites
- Secure Computing TrustedSource technology will extend McAfee’s “in-the-cloud” security as a service offering
- With Secure Computing, McAfee expects to be able to deliver the complete content and data lifecycle management at the network, spanning detection, filtering, encryption, blocking, archiving, reporting and compliance
- Secure Computing has more than 22,000 customers in 106 countries that will be able to rely upon McAfee as a single source for complete security portfolio—spanning endpoint, network, data and risk and compliance

Since I mentioned the antivirus/data security market as a whole in the beginning, here's some data for your reference - last year, McAfee's revenue totalled $1.3 billion, with network security sales of about $500 million per year. Not bad at all, not bad at all!

These are only the latest updates, but it's also worth mentioning that, last year, McAfee acquired Israeli data protection company Onigma for $20 million, as well as the encryption and access control vendor SafeBoot, for $350 million.

As you probably know already, Microsoft has started a very expensive advertising campaign to push up Windows Vista. We talked about this a few months ago, when it was only in the project stage, but I skipped the first few ads released as part of this campaign, ads that included Bill Gates himself and Jerry Seinfeld in the cast. Why did I do that? The answer is simple - they were a big zero to me, and saying they were bad, meaningless, a waste of money, and so on, that's what everybody did. Now, I think I will follow my calling and finally do what (probably) most people will do, and talk about the shift of direction that is taking place...


Now, I don't know if this is the truth or just a quick way of covering a disaster, but Microsoft just announced that the "teaser ads" I mentioned earlier, released two weeks ago, will be pushed aside and make room for a new series, starting tonight. I only ask one thing - why go on with this???

If I would be in their place, I would simply admit the mistake that's Vista, and put as much money as possible into developing the next Windows version, maybe I'll get it right. Anyway, since I am not in the position to change anything in the <-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->way Microsoft is considering to go on, I will let it be and move to the next part - the "Life Without Walls" campaign.

So, like it or not, Microsoft's advertising crusade goes on, and - hopefully - this time, everything will have a meaning. According to the Redmond giant, the new ads will aim at "tearing down the walls," whatever that means. Even more, they say the new ads will "celebrate the diversity and passion of consumers around the world who use Windows to stay in touch with the people, information and ideas that they care about."

Well, at least the "Life Without Walls" image gallery at Microsoft.com looks interesting, but I have no idea about the ads to come, especially since a "Real PC" series is also scheduled, containing ads to fight directly Apple's "Get a Mac" campaign.

For now, this is it. If the new ads prove to be as meaningless as the previous ones, be sure we won't talk about them! :)