Steve Ballmer
Technology

Steve Ballmer Net Worth

Steve Ballmer, born on March 24, 1956 in Hunts Point, Washington, is the former CEO of Microsoft and current owner of the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers. He is also a philanthropist, having pledged $96 million over 6 years to StriveTogether. He left Stanford's MBA program to join Microsoft in 1980 and was CEO from 2000 to 2014, when he bought the Clippers for $2 billion.
Steve Ballmer is a member of Technology

Age, Biography and Wiki

Who is it? Owner, Los Angeles Clippers
Birth Day March 24, 1956
Birth Place Hunts Point, Washington, United States
Age 67 YEARS OLD
Birth Sign Aries
Residence Farmington Hills, Michigan U.S.
Alma mater International School of Brussels Harvard University (BA) Stanford University (dropped out)
Spouse(s) Connie Snyder (1990–present)
Children 3
Awards Legion of Honour

💰 Net worth: $80.7 Billion (2024)

Steve Ballmer, the renowned businessman and former CEO of Microsoft, has accumulated a staggering net worth, estimated to be around $80.7 billion by 2024. While he gained widespread recognition for his influential role at Microsoft, where he helped transform the company into a tech giant, he has also extended his success to other ventures. In addition to his business ventures, Ballmer is also known as the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, a professional basketball team in the United States. With his immense wealth and entrepreneurial track record, Ballmer continues to leave an indelible mark in the business world.

2009 $13.3 Billion
2010 $13.1 Billion
2011 $13.9 Billion
2012 $15.9 Billion
2013 $18 Billion
2014 $22.5 Billion
2015 $21.6 Billion
2016 $27.5 Billion
2017 $30 Billion
2018 $40.14 Billion

Famous Quotes:

People like to point to this quote where I said iPhones will never sell, because the price at $600 or $700 was too high. And there was business model innovation by Apple to get it essentially built into the monthly cellphone bill.

Biography/Timeline

1921

His time as Microsoft CEO has been seen as mixed, with critics noting the company's tripling of sales and doubling of profits, but losing its market dominance and missing out on 21st century Technology trends.

1964

Ballmer was born in Detroit; he was the son of Beatrice Dworkin and Frederic Henry Ballmer (Fritz Hans Ballmer), a manager at the Ford Motor Company. His Father was a Swiss immigrant, and his mother was Belarusian Jewish. Through his mother, Ballmer is a second cousin of Actress and Comedian Gilda Radner. Ballmer grew up in the affluent community of Farmington Hills, Michigan. Ballmer also lived in Brussels for three years in 1964, where he attended the International School of Brussels. In 1973, he attended college prep and engineering classes at Lawrence Technological University. He graduated valedictorian from Detroit Country Day School, a private college preparatory school in Beverly Hills, Michigan, with a score of 800 on the mathematical section of the SAT and was a National Merit Scholar. He now sits on the school's board of Directors. In 1977, he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a B.A. in applied mathematics and economics.

1980

Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft on June 11, 1980, and became Microsoft's 30th employee, the first Business manager hired by Gates.

1981

Ballmer was initially offered a salary of $50,000 as well as a percentage of ownership of the company. When Microsoft was incorporated in 1981, Ballmer owned 8% of the company. In 2003, Ballmer sold 39.3 million Microsoft shares equating to approximately $955 million, thereby reducing his ownership to 4%. The same year, he replaced Microsoft's employee stock options program.

1985

One of his earliest known viral videos was his promotion of Windows 1.0 for a Crazy Eddie commercial in 1985, where he energetically shouts "How much do YOU think this advanced operating environment is worth? WAIT just one minute before you answer". Ballmer and Brian Valentine repeated this in a spoof promotion of Windows XP later on.

1990

In 1990, he married Connie Snyder; they have three sons.

1992

In the 20 years following his hire, Ballmer headed several Microsoft divisions, including operations, operating systems development, and sales and support. From February 1992 onwards, he was Executive Vice President, Sales and Support. Ballmer led Microsoft's development of the .NET Framework. Ballmer was then promoted to President of Microsoft, a title that he held from July 1998 to February 2001, making him the de facto number two in the company to the chairman and CEO, Bill Gates.

2000

In July 2000, Ballmer called the free software Linux kernel "communism" and further claimed that it infringed with Microsoft's intellectual property. In June 2001 he called Linux a "cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches". Ballmer used the notion of "viral" licensing terms to express his concern over the fact that the GNU General Public License (GPL) employed by such software requires that all derivative software be under the GPL or a compatible license. In April 2003 he even interrupted his skiing holiday in Switzerland to personally plea the mayor of Munich not to switch to GNU/Linux. But he did not succeed with this and Munich uses LiMux now, despite his offering a 35% discount at his lobbying visit.

2001

Ballmer served as Director of Accenture Ltd. and a general partner of Accenture SCA from 2001 to 2006.

2005

In 2005, Microsoft sued Google for hiring one of its previous vice Presidents, Kai-Fu Lee, claiming it was in violation of his one-year non-compete clause in his contract. Mark Lucovsky, who left for Google in 2004, alleged in a sworn statement to a Washington state court that Ballmer became enraged upon hearing that Lucovsky was about to leave Microsoft for Google, picked up his chair, and threw it across his office, and that, referring to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt (who previously worked for competitors Sun and Novell), Ballmer vowed to "kill Google." Lucovsky reports:

2007

In 2007, Ballmer said "There's no chance that the [Apple] iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance."

2008

On March 6, 2008, Seattle mayor Greg Nickels announced that a local ownership group involving Ballmer made a "game changing" commitment to invest $150 million in cash toward a proposed $300 million renovation of KeyArena and were ready to purchase the Seattle SuperSonics from the Professional Basketball Club LLC in order to keep the team in Seattle. However, this initiative failed, and the SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where they now play as the Oklahoma City Thunder.

2009

Speaking at a conference in NYC in 2009, Ballmer criticized Apple's pricing, saying, "Now I think the tide has turned back the other direction (against Apple). The economy is helpful. Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment—same piece of hardware—paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that's a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be."

2011

During the 2011 Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, he said: "You don't need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone and you do to use an Android phone ... It is hard for me to be excited about the Android phones."

2012

As part of his plans to expand on hardware, on June 19, 2012, Ballmer revealed Microsoft's first ever computer device, a tablet called Microsoft Surface at an event held in Hollywood, Los Angeles. He followed this by announcing the company's purchase of Nokia's mobile phone division in September 2013, his last major acquisition for Microsoft as CEO.

2013

In June 2012, Ballmer was an investor in Chris R. Hansen's proposal to build a new arena in the SoDo neighborhood of Seattle and bring the SuperSonics back to Seattle. On January 9, 2013, Ballmer and Hansen led a group of Investors in an attempt to purchase the Sacramento Kings from the Maloof family and relocate them to Seattle for an estimated $650 million. However, this attempt also fell through.

2014

On November 13, 2014, it was announced that Ballmer would provide a gift, estimated at $60 million, to Harvard University’s computer science department. The gift would allow the department to hire new faculty, and hopefully increase the national stature of the program. Ballmer previously donated $10 million to the same department in 1994, in a joint-gift with Bill Gates.

2015

In 2015, Ballmer called Microsoft's decision to invest in Apple to save it from bankruptcy in 1997 as the "craziest thing we ever did". By 2015 Apple was the world's most valuable company.

2016

In March 2016, Ballmer changed his stance on Linux, saying that he supports his successor Satya Nadella's open source commitments. He maintained that his comments in 2001 were right at the time but that times have changed.

2017

Ballmer launched USAFacts.org in 2017, a non-profit organization whose goal is to allow people to understand US government revenue, spending and societal impact. He is reported to have contributed $10 million to fund teams of researchers who populated the website's database with official data.

Some Steve Ballmer images

About the author

Lisa Scholfield

As a Senior Writer at Famous Net Worth, I spearhead an exceptional team dedicated to uncovering and sharing the stories of pioneering individuals. My passion for unearthing untold narratives drives me to delve deep into the essence of each subject, bringing forth a unique blend of factual accuracy and narrative allure. In orchestrating the editorial workflow, I am deeply involved in every step—from initial research to the final touches of publishing, ensuring each biography not only informs but also engages and inspires our readership.