Takes 4% stake in Twitter
Ballmer announces he has taken a 4% stake in Twitter. CEO Jack Dorsey has a 3% stake. Co-founder Evan Williams has a 6.8% stake. Twitter shares rise 5% after the tweet is determined to be authentic.
Good job @twitter,@twittermoments innovation, @jack Ceo, leaner, more focused. Glad I bought 4% past few months. Like @alwaleedbinT move too
— Steve Ballmer (@Steven_Ballmer) October 16, 2015
Six pieces of advice for Ballmer
Cuban gives Ballmer six pieces of advice after Ballmer’s purchase of the L.A. Clippers:
1. Prepare for a never-ending media storm
He says NBA bloggers are worse than Apple fan boys and time at Microsoft won’t prepare Ballmer for sports media;
2. You don’t own the Clippers, the community does
The team belongs to fans everywhere, not shareholders or owners;
3. You will be asked things that have never been asked of you before
This could include requests to meet sick children, or even providing jerseys for children who have died to be buried in;
4. You will be all smiles when you win and find it hard to leave the house when you lose.
The pain of losing is stronger than the joy of winning;
5. Don’t try to make every penny you can off the team.
Knowing that people can still afford to come to games when the team isn’t doing great is more important than maximizing investment;
6. Be yourself. No explanation needed. Everyone needs some Ballmer in their life.
Bans Apple products from Clippers
Ballmer is expected to ban the use of Apple products by the Clippers. The iPads used on the sidelines will probably be replaced with Surface tablets.
Most of the Clippers on are [sic] Windows, some of the players and coaches are not. And Doc kind of knows that’s a project. It’s one of the first things he said to me: ‘We are probably going to get rid of these iPads, aren’t we?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, we probably are.’ But I promised we would do it during the off season.
Steve Ballmer interview
Arrington interviews Ballmer in the TechCrunch office, with Bing, Windows 7, Azure, Mesh, and other products all hitting the market. Ballmer:
It’s good to have a year where you have a lot of things to get excited about