Is there a "ballmer discount" on Microsoft shares?

There were rumors that Microsoft's top management began discussing Steve Ballmer’s dismissal as CEO. The reason for this was the poor dynamics of Microsoft shares in recent years, because of which even Apple took the lead on capitalization.

Microsoft has good financial results: an increase in revenue from the Xbox, record sales of Windows 7, savings of more than $ 20 billion in cash in the bank, but for some reason the shares feel worse than the market. According to some shareholders, "Ballmer discount" affects the capitalization, which presses down the course. If the CEO leaves, the market can take it positively.

Talk about Ballmer’s departure came after the recent corporate conference Microsoft Global Experience in Atlanta, which gathered 10,000 Microsoft employees. Many of them had the impression that Steve is not the same, he lost inspiration, and his speech is not ignited as before. Some participants tweeted it, while others privately shared their impressions that this is for Steve the last conference of the Microsoft Global Experience. Next year it will be gone.

Experts on condition of anonymity say that with their products like Kin, Bing and Zune, Microsoft looks "irrelevant in Silicon Valley."
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Many agree that Ballmer is now under pressure. However, there are several obstacles to his departure. Firstly, Steve enjoys the unconditional trust of the board of directors. Secondly, in his place is not yet seen a worthy candidate. After the departure of Bill Gates, there were many options, but now there are none, and the post of Microsoft CEO, according to some, looks more like a dictatorship. This is also due to the specific leadership style inherent in Ballmer, who is known for his toughness and expressiveness. There is credible evidence that in 2005, Ballmer threw a chair and cursed in his office when he learned that one of the programmers goes to Google.