USC Is Everywhere Con’t.

Steve Ballmer, who is trying to buy the Clippers for $2 billion, has a son that attends USC. Let’s hope Ballmer does a better job with the Clippers than Windows Vista.

34 thoughts on “USC Is Everywhere Con’t.

  1. BAM!….. Wolf really knows how to find a weakness in another human being and go after it!…… nice reporting!… goTroy22 will be proud….

    • Luckily, Ballmer has $20 Billion dollars to soak up the tears he sheds after reading Scott’s hurtful posts.

    • Garry Bleauz, be proud of your sucking up to get access. Maybe you can get Ballmer to hire you to be his personal valet and you can quit your humiliating job begging for crumbs from Pat Haden.

  2. HAWR-HAWR!!!

    good one, wolfman!!

    not mention Balmer’s an IDIOT for paying FIVE TIMES THE VALUE for the Toe Nail Clippers!! 2 BIllion??? and the Toe Nail Clippers DONT EVEN own the Arena OR the land!!! he just paid 2 billion for an inside out t-shirt logo!! wow.

    what you gonna do? so the crazy old racist makes a fool out of the [Dot]com Dummy!! i FIGURED there had to a trOXan link here somewhere, and i was RIGHT again!!!

  3. Wolf, the WSJ has a better listing of Ballmer’s ruinous purchases;

    “Let’s take a look at some of the more notable deals of the Ballmer [Microsoft] era:

    aQuantive. In August 2007, Microsoft acquired
    aQuantive, a online ad agency, for $6.3 billion cash, and 85% premium.
    At the time, it was Microsoft’s largest deal. “This deal takes our
    advertising business to a new level,” the company’s COO, Kevin Johnson,
    said at the time. How’d it work out? Microsoft took a
    $6.2 billion write-off on the business in 2012. “The acquisition did
    not accelerate growth to the degree anticipated,” the company said.

    Skype. In May 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype for
    $8.5 billion in an unsolicited bid “even though there were no signs of
    other serious bidders,” as we wrote at the time. The
    price tag was three times what the company had gone for just 18 months
    prior, as the company was scrambling to catch up in the mobile and
    Internet markets. How’d it work out? Microsoft doesn’t break out Skype revenue, so it’s hard to really know. But the service is popular, and they just unveiled a gee-whiz “Star Trek” like universal translator service.

    Nokia. In September 2013, Microsoft acquired Nokia’s
    handset business, for $7.2 billion in cash. “It’s a bold step into the
    future – a win-win for employees, shareholders and consumers,” Mr.
    Ballmer said at the time. How’d it work out? You could
    argue, if you like, that it’s too soon to say; the deal closed only in
    April. But Microsoft controls less than 4% of the U.S. smartphone
    market. Moreover, whether it’s a win-win for employees, shareholders,
    and consumers, it was a definite loser for Mr. Ballmer: the Nokia deal
    was apparently the deal-breaker for him, and the internal fight over it led to his ouster.

    Yahoo. Of all the deals Microsoft did do, it’s the one that it didn’t do that may be the most instructive. In February 2008, Microsoft offered $44.6 billion for Yahoo, a 62% premium to the company’s stock, in an attempt to merge two struggling search businesses. It was a huge deal in the high-tech world, and it was a huge, public, messy battle that Microsoft eventually lost in one way,
    and won in another. Yahoo ultimately rejected the deal, although angry
    shareholder would later boot founder Jerry Yang over it. Yahoo’s stock,
    which was in the $30 range when the deal was announced, would soon sink
    into the single digits, and would languish in the teens range for years after.

    Not exactly a sterling record, no pun intended, and we didn’t even
    mention Microsoft’s stock, which went from $58 when Mr. Ballmer took
    over in 2000 to $40 and change today.”

    • HAWR-HAWR!!! WOW! what a whiz kid this Balmer is!!!

      Balmer is to Bill Gates as Oates is to Daryl Hall.

      hey, i gotta box of cat turds to sell, Steverino!!! Buy it Now price: $7million in cash or Stock!!!

      what’s that?? you’ll offer me $20Mil????? SOLD!!!

      HAWR-HAWR!!!

    • Well James, you know tech. What’s the cliche? The smartest guys in your business do NOT work for your company.

      Scott’s joking around, but MS has bungled and continues to bungle its efforts to improve its monopoly operating system (8.1 is not a crowd pleaser). Many businesses are reluctantly letting go of Windows XP only because Microsoft will no longer update its security features. If it hasn’t already happened, group of engineers will probably offer some OS that mimics XP on a PC.

      I was amazed to find that MS now wants to collect an annual license fee on Office. Meanwhile, web articles comparing MS Office and its no-cost competitors, Open Office and Libre Office, suggest that the differences are trivial, and that MS should be worried.

      Basically, while the antitrust case didn’t break up MS, or cripple it with damage awards, MS never really recovered from that lawsuit. Once the government(s) slowed down MS’s predatory bullying, there was no innovative substance inside the company. Many important executives left after the trial was over.

      And yes, Ballmer presided over the decline.

      Still, Scott’s right. Ballmer’s commitment to L.A. will likely be good for USC (the university, not the football team). I’m sure Nikias smells opportunity.

      By contrast, it’s a bad time for the Lakers to be run by Jim Buss. Whether Ballmer wants to justify his investment or just live out a sports fantasy, he will not intentionally aim for mediocrity in the way Sterling did. And Jim Buss makes Ballmer look like a genius.

    • Some further amusing ironies and possibilities:

      Donald Sterling hired Max Blecher to sue the NBA, and maybe to sue Shelly Sterling for selling the Clippers. If DS sues SS, will she be represented by David Boies? A long time ago Max Blecher sued IBM for antitrust, and was completely out-lawyered by a rising young guy at Cravath NYC: David Boies. David Boies, of course, left his multi-million dollar private practice for a year to lead the Justice Department’s antitrust case against Microsoft. And he represented Mrs. McCourt against Frank McCourt over the Dodgers. If Boies evaluates Shelly’s actions as defensible, Donald Sterling likely hired the wrong jockey in Max Blecher.

      Oh yes, the Dodgers. What bad timing for Magic Johnson, who really should be the face of the Clippers purchase. Now that would have Jim Buss in a cold sweat–an overpriced superstar who may never be sturdy again, no other top talent (at least in 2014), and Magic Johnson in charge of overall basketball strategy for “the rival team”, which already made the playoffs. Jim B, you’ve got it good by contrast. Sure, Ballmer could buy and sell you 10 times, but what does he really know about basketball (and he didn’t even do that well with a software monopoly)?

      I wonder what Ballmer tells himself about the purchase price? Here’s what I’d be thinking:

      “David Geffen is one shrewd SOB, and he was willing to pay $1.6 billion. Of course, Geffen probably is a lot better than I am at entertainment businesses. And who knows Geffen’s motives? He’s gay, he doesn’t have kids, he’s a big L.A. donor. Maybe it’s a public-trust legacy play, not an investment at all. But what the heck? How much should I really worry about $400 million at this point in my life? Or even $1 billion? This will be a really fun third act for me. Not as much fun as if I were single, but still–fun. I jumped around on stage at MS and shouted “I love this company”. But that’s nothing. NBA action REALLY IS FANTASTIC.”

  4. hey wolf, why did you delete my post about your lying? That nose must be long…..haha!!!!

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