ballmer

Don’t look for Bill Gates courtside at L.A. Clippers games anytime soon.

Gates and Ballmer at the Microsoft co-founder's farewell event in 2008.
Gates and Ballmer at the Microsoft co-founder’s farewell event in 2008.

Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer appeared on CBS This Morning today to talk about his purchase of the NBA team, but the interview also explored issues related to his legacy at the technology company, his thoughts on CEO Satya Nadella’s comments on women asking for raises, and the state of his relationship with his longtime friend Gates.

At one point he was asked: Are you and Bill Gates on good terms today?

“Eh, you know, we’ve dusted up many times in our lives, and that kind of stuff happens,” Ballmer responded. “But we’ve done it before. We’ve done that before.”

A recent Vanity Fair article said Ballmer and Gates “stopped speaking to each other as a result of the bad blood surrounding Ballmer’s resignation,” after Gates torpedoed Ballmer’s initial attempts to get the Microsoft board to approve the Nokia acquisition.

Gates and co-founder Paul Allen similarly had a falling out after the publication of Allen’s memoir, Idea Man, with its unflattering portrayal of Gates, but they’ve since patched things up.

Separately, here’s what Ballmer had to say on Nadella’s recent comments on women and pay raises.

I don’t remember the precise quote, but you know it’s one of these things. When you’re the CEO of a big company, you have to be thinking about sort of seven dimensions of everything you say. Satya spoke about his personal experience was — actually he allowed good karma to happen and good things happened to him. He was very fortunate, and that’s his genuine belief in life.

But you do have people who don’t necessarily get a fair shake through the process, and particularly a group of women in technology — you know, that’s probably a tougher place to be. And so relating to his personal experience, probably not what that group needed to hear at that time, despite the fact that, you know, it would be a nice world if things worked that way. And it did work out well for Satya. And he showed he’s a lovely human being, actually.

Watch the full video on the CBS News site.

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