CE-Oh no he didn't! Part XLIV: Ballmer calls Ellison overpaid, kettle black

As soon as the salary of a CEO reaches the $1 million a year mark, they should probably hush up about their peer's ridiculously inflated $74 million ones. Apply those numbers to Steve Ballmer and Larry Ellison respectively, and now consider that Ballmer is complaining about the latter's yearly figure. According to Forbes, Ellison has consistently hit the top ten of CEO compensation list, and is unarguably the most well paid CEO of a technology company, but does that give Ballmer any right to call him out on it? We're thinking maybe Ballmer should take stock -- of which he has 9.6% of Microsoft's total by the way -- and continue to count up his $15 Billion fortune. Sure, over-compensation of CEOs is a problem, but one that probably shouldn't be outed by a well-compensated CEO that earns double-digit multiples over the average Microsoft salary.

[Alan Partridge @ Oct 2nd 2007 9:09AM]

That man is repulsive

[FrankTheCrank @ Oct 2nd 2007 9:09AM]

Windows Vista SUCKS!!! XP is so much better.

[Mitch @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:53AM]

Vista does not suck, it is far more stable then XP.
However, It uses way too much memory, it takes too many clicks to get to a simple control panel, and UAC is worthless. The best option right now is to set the UI back to Classic mode and disable all the unnecessary stuff that MS piled into it.

[Andir3.0 @ Oct 2nd 2007 11:03AM]

XP is pretty stable... and what's the point of upgrading if your going to strip out what makes it new?

[Josh Warner @ Oct 2nd 2007 11:38AM]

@ Mitch -

Wrong. Vista has so many buggy driver issues, on the PC's and laptops I can monitor it crashes far more often than my XP install. Which is to say, it crashes - XP simply does not. The only times I ever have to restart XP is for updates. I've had XP run perfectly, continuously, for months (yes plural) before. XP is rock solid; any stability issues are caused by 3rd party drivers (I'm looking at YOU, Creative!).

[Alexander @ Oct 2nd 2007 11:55AM]

XP and Vista both suck. Ubuntu runs circles around it any day of the week.

With that said, I still have an XP partition that I boot into to play games. It does not connect to the internet. I don't do anything but play games on it. I don't even have updates on it unless they are required for a game. I have all the services turned off that aren't required, and nothing running in the background.

I do all my work in Linux, and all of my games in Windows. You gotta keep 'em separated.

[NovaLand @ Oct 2nd 2007 3:08PM]

@Andir3.0: I needed to upgrade since an application I need to use doesn't support XP sp2, but i need XP Sp2 so be able to use my harddrives which SP1 couldn't do.

A collition that was making me all confused but Vista was the solution. I run it with all the XP-theme i can use.

[adriangrab @ Oct 2nd 2007 9:09AM]

I tend to disagree, the free market does a very efficient job of allocating salaries to CEOs. They really are similar to professional athletes in the regard that no one else would be able to do their jobs. It's a supply and demand deal.

I have personally had the opportunity to sit in a board room and watch CEOs of Fortune 100 companies interact, and have to say that they blew me away. Watching them analyze very complex problems, lead a group of other high ego executives, and make billion dollar decisions kept me in awe. I don't think most middle managers compare in any way.

[cpetterborg @ Oct 2nd 2007 11:42AM]

NO ONE can tell me that a $50M/yr executive is worth it. Even if they are "amazing," it isn't that they couldn't be replaced by someone else who takes the same information from their staff and comes up with a comparable decision. The only reason they make that money is that they feel that they need the money in case they make a really bad decision and then can never get another job. It's called employment insurance. And if that money was spread around to a number of employees, they would do their job better, and the company would do better than by paying some CEO for merely being willing to "commit to" the hard decisions.

[Chris @ Oct 2nd 2007 9:10AM]

"but does that give Ballmer any right to call him out on it?"

He has the right to say whatever the hell he wants to, as you have the right to point out the irony of his comments.

[Bob @ Oct 2nd 2007 9:19AM]

Whereas somebody who earns $999,999 a year, of course, has every right to call others 'overpaid'.

[StatsMan @ Oct 2nd 2007 9:19AM]

Total Ballmer Compensation According to Forbes - 1.3 million
http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/personinfo/FromPersonIdPersonTearsheet.jhtml?passedPersonId=142565

Total Ellison Compensation According to Forbes - 35 million
http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/personinfo/FromPersonIdPersonTearsheet.jhtml?passedPersonId=223718

Total Jobs Compensation According to Forbes - 674 million
http://www.forbes.com/2007/05/03/highest-paid-ceos-lead-07ceo-cx_sd_0503highestpaidceo_slide_2.html?boxes=custom

[404error @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:20AM]

Jobs' profile says 674,000. As in thousands, not millions

[StatsMan @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:27AM]

actually it says "($thou): $646,600"

meaning 646 thousand thousand or 646 million

this stat can be verified by numerous sources, including
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9716002-7.html

[maxmasa31 @ Oct 2nd 2007 12:22PM]

Gotta love the Apple haters.

Anyway, your quote "forgot" Ellison's stock options, which, undoubtedly are what pushed Jobs' total compensation higher--Jobs actually only makes $1 a year in pay. The other $675,999,999 comes from his stock options. Which is way overinflated, as Apple stock has more than doubled in the past 12 months.

And based on your link, Larry Ellison made $591 million including his stock options. And about 35 million times more than Jobs in cash compensation and 35 times more than Ballmer.

[404error @ Oct 2nd 2007 1:11PM]

Oh, right, sorry then.

[StatsMan @ Oct 2nd 2007 1:20PM]

ok fine. this one list has all three CEO's and their respective compensation (via Forbes)
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/12/lead_07ceos_CEO-Compensation_CompTotDisp.html

Ballmer - .98 million in total compensation
Ellison - 72 million in total compensation
Jobs - 646 million in total compensation

Clearly there are some discrepancies with all of this data, but its there for you to decide.

[artman1033 @ Oct 2nd 2007 9:20AM]

this from the man that brought us squircle?

[blade417 @ Oct 2nd 2007 9:55AM]

the money taste like chicken

[netposer @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:06AM]

All that money won't do him any good when he keels over from his poor health and diet.

[Wwhat @ Oct 2nd 2007 1:11PM]

That's a silly remark, his money comes in even more handy than normal when he needs medical treatment in america.

[netposer @ Oct 3rd 2007 7:27AM]

@Wwhat

That's exactly my point. All the money in the world is not going to help him when he has a heart attack and dies during a speach or one of his famous rants "developers developers developers".

And your 'america' comment makes no sense. I think anywhere in the world money helps you when it comes to medical treatment even in those countries that have socialized medical programs.

[zorg @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:11AM]

Hey! You lay off poor Britney ... er, Steve!

I hear his kids can't even get PS3 ... or Wii ... or extra chairs ... some people can barely get by on $15b

[Andir3.0 @ Oct 2nd 2007 11:09AM]

This man has kids? Maybe the world is ending.

[Cesar Cardoso @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:12AM]

Thanks Engadget for giving us back the always-entertaining CE-Oh no he didn't!

[Warhorse @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:14AM]

My god, I always crack up when I see that picture. Thank you for the laugh this morning!

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:20AM]

What a big, fat, corporate asshat.

Why even give it attention?

[Andir3.0 @ Oct 2nd 2007 11:05AM]

Because it brings advertisement hits.

[KingOfAsses @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:43AM]

At least Larry Ellison earned his position, and didn't inherit it by being a poker buddy of Bill Gates'

If it weren't for Gates, Balmer would be selling used cars & coaching pee wee football in which he systematically molest the kids.

[Rainier @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:43AM]

My friend makes 34 cents more an hour than me; I would like to complain!!

[Andir3.0 @ Oct 2nd 2007 11:06AM]

Time to get new lower paid friends!

[Rainier @ Oct 2nd 2007 11:51AM]

Hahaha!!! Good one!

[CosterMonger @ Oct 2nd 2007 11:01AM]

Ballmer's title is all wrong, it gives him a inflated sense of his role at Microsoft.

a more convincing title:

Steve Ballmer AKA Mr. Sweaty,
Microsoft Corporate Mascot

[hikeskool @ Oct 2nd 2007 11:27AM]

Not.

Funny.

[Andir3.0 @ Oct 2nd 2007 11:56AM]

I don't know, I thought it was pretty funny. Ever see the video of him fumbling about the stage screaming at the top of his lungs with pit stains the size of Washington?

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 2nd 2007 1:24PM]

FUNNY.

[CosterMonger @ Oct 2nd 2007 6:22PM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhUAr-P_39U&mode=related&search=
developers, developers, developers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTkA9L2J2gY&mode=related&search=
marketing, marketing, marketing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La_u1jPLOIA&mode=related&search=
we just going to keep coming and coming and coming and coming and coming and coming and coming...

not funny?

[J @ Oct 2nd 2007 11:18AM]

I think Ballmer has every right to call Ellison overpaid. In fact, Ballmer is probably underpaid. His networth should not enter the argument. Ballmer is not compensated with Microsoft stock, he just happens to hold it from his early days with the company.

I also agree with adriangrab with the Professional Athlete remark. There are very few people in the world who are capable of doing what these people do. If you think you can run a company like Microsoft better than Ballmer, start working and get up there. However, you're probably going to have to work your ass off (getting to CEO level doesn't allow time for reading Engadget or Slashdot all day).

[andy @ Oct 2nd 2007 11:54AM]

Then why have so many CEO's gotten into hot water recently for their blog posts?

[Andir3.0 @ Oct 2nd 2007 11:58AM]

Not "work your ass off"... "kiss your bosses ass off"

[Markus @ Oct 2nd 2007 11:55AM]

This guy sure is a pig.

[John @ Oct 2nd 2007 12:12PM]

The way I see it, the CEO should make the most money of any job in the company by a reasonable margin. There's supposed to be incentive to move up the corporate ladder, and the top job should offer the most money. 1.3m is peanuts to people with as much money as Ballmer and Ellison, and 35m doesn't have that much of an impact on your finances either when you reach that level of wealth.

Really though ,think of it this way - there are ~5 billion shares of stock, and 35m/5b = 7/10 of a cent per share. Oracle doesn't pay dividends, but by comparison if Ballmer made 35 million a year, that would be a 4% drop in dividends and Microsoft has far more shares outstanding than Oracle.

[Canon Shooter @ Oct 2nd 2007 12:58PM]

UBUNTU???!!!

You gotta have some serious issues facing reality - give me a fricking break here. Yes, I have installed and used UBUNTU - if only I could remove it as fast as I was able to install it, that would've made my day!

XP is great. Vista is even better. Those who argue otherwise are ones that still play with their Playstation 1 console.

Face it - you keep improving on shxt that is near perfect - it's good for business and of course, it gives you feature options.

Using Ubuntu is as lame as trying to install my first USB device back in Windows 98 OSR2 days.

....and quote me on this: UBUNTU will never become mainstream. You gotta keep up with Windows 98 OSR2 first!

[Ayle @ Oct 2nd 2007 3:34PM]

^_^ yeah right....

[Dave @ Oct 2nd 2007 1:36PM]

Well Ellison needs to be sharing the money with his employees. Many divisions there have had a two year or more salary freeze as bonuses also go down, and his salary goes up at Oracle.

[Ozbone @ Oct 2nd 2007 2:49PM]

If Ballmer had a brain to match his mouth he might actually be worth listening to.

[ZinkDifferent @ Oct 2nd 2007 2:57PM]

Maybe Ellison is overpaid... at least he's not overweight.

[PEZ @ Oct 2nd 2007 3:50PM]

Dudes a jackass.

[chris joseph @ Oct 2nd 2007 7:49PM]

If he hadn't been ((this close)) to the right nerd at the right time, he'd be a nobody loser loutmouth F*ck instead of just a loutmouth F*ck

[Canon Shooter @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:37PM]

I'm not being biased here -

STOP BASHING on Steve Ballmer -

You guys do not understand what it takes to run a company - a HUGE company day to day. He did not just start working for MSFT anyway - he was roomates with Bill Gates back at Harvard - he has been with the company since the early beginning - and if he didn't have what it takes, he would not be the chief right now.

Blind hatred is just ignorant. Know your enemy before you attack them. At least when you attack them, acknowledge their strengths. His weakness may be love of food, jealousy of apple marketing strategies, but at the end of the day, he is the chief running the most well known company on the PLANET!

You say MICROSOFT, they know bill gates. You say larry ellison - WHO DA? who is that guy? You say steve ballmer - and yes, sadly, not many know of him.

don't hate the player, hate the game!