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December 3, 2015

Steve Ballmer trashes Microsoft cloud visibility

News: Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer calls use of run rate reporting "bulls**t" and criticises Windows Phone strategy.

By James Nunns

Microsoft’s level of disclosure regarding its cloud revenue has been criticised by its former CEO, Steve Ballmer.

Steve Ballmer, the company’s largest investor, criticised the lack of visibility regarding profit margins and sales for its cloud and hardware business.

Although the company reports an annual revenue run rate for its cloud business, with it aiming to reach $20bn by 2018, Ballmer said the use of run rate was, "bullsh*t," according to Bloomberg.

Ballmer, said: "It’s sort of a key metric — if they talk about it as key to the company, they should report it."

Ballmer left the company in 2014, handing over to current CEO, Satya Nadella.

The former CEO made the comments during Microsoft‘s annual shareholder meeting, where he also criticised the Windows Phone strategy.

Nadella was questioned regarding a lack of key apps on the phone, with the current CEO detailing the company’s plan to appeal to developers and a larger array of devices than just Microsoft handsets.

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Ballmer said, "That won’t work," before saying the company needs to enable Windows Phones to run Android apps.

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