Problem:

As you know, Microsoft appointed its third ever CEO on February 4, 2014. I want to look backward at their former CEO for the moment. On Friday the 23rd of August 2013, Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft for several years, had announced his retirement. Under his leadership, the company had made a lot of profit, but lost shareholder value Microsoft is currently at an interesting crossroads. While it had an operating income of over $20b each of the past four years, its share price had continued to remain disappointing, between $25 and $37. This really calls to attention an important point; for public companies, there are two management priorities. One is to make money, and the other is to keep stock price up. And these two priorities sometimes pull in different directions. For example, investment in R&D leads to long-term profitability. However, when a company makes too many investments, its stock price tends to go down, because investors focus on short term (quarterly) returns -

Required:

Question 1) Evaluate Steve Ballmer's leadership. Was he good for Microsoft?

Question 2) Did it make sense to force him to retire? -

Question 3) Suggest how Microsoft can move ahead. How can it remain successful? -

Question 4) Should companies like Microsoft develop special strategies to keep their share price high, or should they simply let the market worry about itself while they focus on things like revenue and profitability?

Provide thorough explanation of every question given in the problem.