Comment on Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to step down within a year

Steve Ballmer, the long-time and much-embattled CEO of Microsoft will retire within the year according to a Microsoft statement posted Friday morning. The news comes after months of rumbling on Wall Street that Microsoft stock, under Ballmer, has underperformed. Earlier this week Nomura Securities analyst Rick Sherlund pretty much predicted that the specter of activisim sparked by ValueAct could force major changes at the top. Microsoft said Ballmer will help guide the search along with a special committee chaired by Microsoft independent director and former Symantec CEO John Thompson; Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates, and Chairman of the Audit committee Chuck Noski and Chairman of the Compensation Committee Steve Luczo.