Microsoft CEO Ballmer Threatens To Move Microsoft Out Of The US....

[BlooInBloo]

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/06/1153217

""Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is threatening to move Microsoft employees offshore if Congress enacts President Obama's plans to curb tax avoidance by US corporations. 'It makes US jobs more expensive,' complained billionaire Ballmer. 'We're better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the US as opposed to keeping them inside the US.' According to 2006 reports, Microsoft transferred $16 billion in assets to secretive Dublin subsidiaries to shave billions off its US tax bill. 'Corporate tax is part of the overall advantage of doing business in Ireland,' acknowledged Ballmer in 2005. 'It would be disingenuous to say otherwise.'""


I suppose the only proper response is: "Bye."


EDIT: One wonders: If MS did leave the country, their products would be subject to import tariffs, right? :rofl:

[seabeyond]

1. fuckers... all these greedy SOB's. n/t

[NYC_SKP]

2. Buh Bye....

[kma3346]

60. Love your reply!

I have this computer and it's wonderful! Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Ballmer, you ridiculous man!

[csziggy]

67. Hello, Fedora

http://fedoraproject.org/

[Cha]

74. That is a good

reply.

[Mojambo]

3. Get.The.Fuck.Out.

Go leech off of someone else's infrastructure.

Fucking greedy assholes.

[47of74]

4. Don't let the door hit you on the ASS on your f-ing way out, Mr. Ballmer.

[sakabatou]

5. Someone, kick Ballmer in the balls.

[blogslut]

6. GTFO

PCs with pre-installed LINUX for all Americans!

[earthboundmisfit]

7. Fucking thugs.

When can we start calling it ECONOMIC TREASON? :mad:

[DemoTex]

8. Ballmer couldn't get MS past the 12 mile offshore limit ..

Without the system crashing.

[RoyGBiv]

11. Winner!

:thumbsup:

[Missy Vixen]

26. You rock, Sir!

:rofl:

[Rex]

35. Ha ha ha ha ha ha

I say ha ha ha ha!

[NikolaC]

47. Good one!

:rofl:

[RandomThoughts]

9. Hey sounds like the corporate interest are finally being honest

About their claim to be able to decide what is law.

Before they leave however, a little jail time for tax evasion might make some sense.

If it is all about money, I would guess staying in a cell for a few years would not matter to them.

[muntrv]

10. I get it Steve. In order to prosper, Americans need to lower their standards

of living and take paycuts.

[RoyGBiv]

12. Developers, developers, developers ...

... developers.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Face of the American Corporation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA6h3f_bfYU

Bye, Steve. And go fuck yourself.

[47of74]

13. The government should tell that greedy piece of work that...

...if he takes his piece of s--t company out of this country then the U.S. government will stop using Microsoft products as soon as possible, within five years at the most.

[BlooInBloo]

21. I know that Boeing uses an awful lot of IBM/Linux.... I assumed it was that way...

throughout the government. No real reason for that assumption, though.

[lapfog_1]

40. Parts of the federal government do use a lot of

Linux / Unix. Mostly the scientific labs and such. The military has always had a strained relationship with Microsoft products (because of security and the willingness or even eagerness of contractors to convince the military that it needs "specialized" software apps... which, in fact, they sometimes DO).

However, the rest of the federal government is using M$... and that's substantial.

And almost ALL state and local government use M$.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

14. "Microsoft employees," not "Microsoft Corporation."

That's not a particularly subtle difference.

[BolivarianHero]

15. Here's the thing though...

I'm a socialist, but if a country wishes to go down the welfare capitalist path, it makes far more sense to tax the Hell out of wealthy individuals than it does to tax the Hell out of corporation. Money spent on a yacht or on a mansion does far less for the economy than money spent on R&D or manufacturing. Better to control corporate behaviour through heavy regulation (i.e. labour laws, consumer protections, environmental regulations) than through punitive taxes.

But since I reject the premise of capitalism in general, this argument is irrelevant in the context of any social and economic order that I would favour.

In actuality, I believe that we are all overworking ourselves by spending time on tasks that should either be automated or not done at all. Could you imagine if all the retail space used to sell stuff content that could be distributed digitally over the Internet were used for parks, for schools, for community centres, for churches, and for housing instead? Could you imagine if all the people who spend their time marketing a Metallica or a Britney Spears album were using their minds and their other talents to do productive work?

[Yukari Yakumo]

44. One problem

Many of these "billionaires" technically pay themselves only $1 (for obvious reasons). Most of the billionaires use company money to live out their extravagant lives.

[Strong Atheist]

62. Welcome to DU!

:toast:

[gmoney]

72. The world is flat... and fucked.

Well, it sounds like MS isn't paying their taxes anyway.

Yeah, move the US Government to Linux or Mac. Stimulate the economy by providing jobs for all the unemployed programmers and techweenies to do the conversion, we end up with a better system in the end.

[Greyhound]

16. Newsflash, they're leaving regardless.

Fuck them and fuck him. Go flog your shitty software someplace else, we'll just have to start using stuff that works.

[Deja Q]

51. I fancied that thought for years...

Go to another country, wank them, make them feel good, move there, then eventually get too conceited and move on to another location where it's "cheaper".

Happened to us and it'll happen to them too. Wake me when that happens.

[riverdeep]

70. Yep.

It used to be 'made in Japan'. Then 'made in Mexico'. Now it's 'made in China'.

As soon as the people start to ask for a second cup of porridge, off to the next locale.

[C_U_L8R]

17. They still won't be able to come up with an original product

or even a good copy for that matter. Bing bong.

[CakeGrrl]

18. On with the exposure of the greedy corporate cockroaches

for what they are.

The problem is, now that they've got a taste for the shareholder profits increased by outsourcing, they don't want to ratchet it back even a little bit.

The only reason they complain that it's too "expensive" to operate in the U.S. is because they can't stand to trim a few million a year off the rest of the millions they earn.

How much money is enough? Greedy pigs. At least they'll be forced to admit it, even if indirectly.

[CLANG]

59. More expensive = Too expensive

The term "Corporate Whore" slanders real whores, who by comparison make a very honest living.

[napoleon_in_rags]

19. There's wealthy Republican patriotism.

They love America...so long as the price is right.

[dmr]

75. Republican Patriotism - so long as the price is right

Now that's a slogan!

[Lucky Luciano]

20. Wow...Covidien (COV) just redomiciled to Ireland on Thursday

and Ingersol Ross (IR) voted to do it on Wednesday, effective in a few weeks. If MSFT redomiciles to Ireland, it will be kicked out of the S&P 500 and the Russell 1000 - and index funds for those two indices, holding about 14% of the float would have to sell all of their shares to replicate the respective indices. That would make about $25B in sales that would need to occur over a day or two - I sure hope to be short that day!

[Marr]

22. These people are completely dependent on the US market to make their money.

They want-- no, they *need* access to the US market (not to mention government contracts), but they act like they're just little self-contained operations. They act like they can just blithely pack up and give everyone the finger. They've been allowed to do so up to this point, of course-- but there's no reason at all that we can't make off-shore headquarters vastly more expensive than domestic.

[tj2001]

23. Americans Threaten To Remove Microsoft From Their Computers

[Missy Vixen]

24. BlooInBloo, you live here as well

It took the city of Redmond over ten years to get any kind of tax at all out of Microsoft. It didn't matter that Microsoft was responsible for an estimated 40,000 extra car trips per day through Redmond, for instance. The wear and tear on the roads, law enforcement, etcetera -- it's coming out of someone's pocket, isn't it? Sure as hell wasn't Microsoft's.

Steve Ballmer can take his friggin' ball and go home. There are now alternatives to Windows, and Google has a new OS that looks good as well. I haven't agreed with everything the President's done so far, but I hope Mr. Ballmer gets to find out up close and personal exactly what's going to happen if he moves his company offshore. One thing's for sure -- it would be amusing to see what would happen if the Obama administration decided that the entire US Government was going to Linux and Open Office the next morning, wouldn't it?

:rofl:

[BlooInBloo]

28. Yep - raised next to Crossroads. The econo-terroristic threat is what bugs me the most...

That sort of thing will almost always get an instant "fuck you, do it then" out of me.

[lumberjack_jeff]

25. Bittorrent runs great on Ubuntu. n/t

[Canuckistanian]

30. So does OpenOffice

And Firefox. And Thunderbird. And Adobe PDF files. And Flash videos.

[HughMoran]

27. I really want to see how these people react to being the focus of attention of angry people

I can't say specifically what I mean, but you can imagine that traitors may not be treated with respect.

[mikehiggins]

29. So, the wage slaves would have to move to Ireland?

SOmetimes, sitting alone in the dark, I wish there was a huge international economic collapse (which right now is restricted only to individuals working--or trying to--for a living). Where would these corporations go then? What if NOBODY could afford to buy their products? I mean, it would be very inconvenient for me to live without a pc but I guess I could manage it. Lots of people do.

[cascadiance]

31. So as a "corporate person", if they move off shore, they are NO LONGER a CITIZEN!!

and they should have NO ability to lobby or have any more "corporate free speech" in our elections, since they would be FOREIGNERS at that point.

And I would recommend they get NO tax benefits or subsidies as foreign entities any more, and perhaps our courts can seize some of their assets in local banks to help them pay for "duty fees" to move their company overseas...

[Deja Q]

49. And no longer get subsidy or getting bailed out... or so we'd all hope and dream.

Assuming they need to get bailed out, but despite their profits they chose to axe more workers.

[Triana]

32. Byeeeeeeeee! A$$holes. n/t

[girl gone mad]

33. Can I help you pack your bags, Mr. Ballmer?

[Deja Q]

50. Do you want to volunteer time? Remember, stitch his clothes together and you've got a blimp

That's a lot of fabric. And hot air.

[frog92969]

34. Go Away!

Your time has passed.

[pnwmom]

36. Ballmer's wrong if he thinks his employees will follow like little lambs.

The kind of person Microsoft recruits has other options, including starting their own companies.

[lapfog_1]

39. No, his intention would be to offshore all development and support.

What he thinks is that his CUSTOMERS will continue to buy his products if he moves everything offshore.

And, given the current climate here (populist and protectionist), I think he would be making a grave miscalculation.

But hey, let's encourage him and see who is right!

[pnwmom]

58. I live in an area that needs those jobs, so I won't be encouraging

them to leave.

[lapfog_1]

76. I think it's a false choice....

Those jobs wouldn't be leaving the US, or even Seattle, just Microsoft.

And the replacement jobs would be better paying and better benefits.

But it's a risk...

[4lbs]

37. Looks like Bill Gates needs to rein Ballmer in, since Gates supported Obama.

Yes, that's right, Bill and Melinda Gates are Obama supporters. They donated to both Obama and Hillary's campaigns, and Bill's father also contributed to Obama's campaign.


Reference the following articles:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/03/bill.gates/

http://news.in.msn.com/international/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1686613

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2009/03/26/bill_gates_obama_has_a_very_smart_team.html

[CRF450]

42. If he can, he needs to fire that a-hole n/t

[Deja Q]

48. Gates supported McCain too - I think he just wants paybacks from whomever got elected

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/01/bill-gates-mccains-dream_n_110247.html

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=bill+gates+mccain+contribution+donated&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

http://littlesis.org/relationship/view/id/60239

In short, I don't understand what your point is.

[4lbs]

52. The point is that Bill Gates publicly supported President Obama's plan for economic recovery and

reform, even if it meant rich people like him would pay more taxes.

Ballmer evidently disagrees with President Obama, and his own boss at Microsoft. Ballmer may be the CEO of MicroSoft, but Gates still has the power to shut him down on this with a single sentence.

[lapfog_1]

38. Not only tariffs but a ban on future government contracts.

All federal state and local purchases of M$ products to stop.

Almost everything that M$ provides has an effective alternative in Unix/Linux land.

And the 3rd party apps would hire lots of programmers to make sure their products were still competitive in the US market.

A win win for everyone (except Microsoft and their Microserfs).

[BlooInBloo]

45. Good point.

[and-justice-for-all]

41. "complained billionaire Ballmer"!! Fuck Off Wanker!! nt

[votingupstart]

43. while i have NO love for MS -i am concerned about the implications

IF (devils advocate here) More companies decide to do this, our coming out of the current economic downturn/free fall will be put a lot farther back into the future. if the financial benefit for these huge companies is to move offshore then they WILL do it, the major shareholders (ie funds/banks/other countries etc - the only ones who can vote with any authority at the company meetings) will demand that MS keep the profits coming in. Oh and thanks to NAFTA and some parts of the WTO - if you think we could put a tax on the incoming merchandise to recoup the lost revenue think again

[Stinky The Clown]

55. As a counter to that ..... think of the opportunities.

Let's say M$ leaves. Let's say government entities get pressure not to buy their shit any more. Every non-M$ alternative is a potential growth machine. M$ has a huge market share that will suddenly become a void.

[votingupstart]

65. could be nt

[Strong Atheist]

63. Welcome to DU!

:toast:

[votingupstart]

66. thanks nt

[Deja Q]

46. Okay, now his comment makes sense.

Of course, if they stopped offshoring (how many more articles and stats do we need about unemployed talent here at home) then there would be no foreign profits to tax...

:shrug:

Either way, I've moved upward and onward.

[Stinky The Clown]

53. By Steve ... thanks for the file formats.

Lots of M$ file format compatible alternatives out there.

iWork and Open Office come quickly to mind.

The feds and all companies can migrate without significant loss of data or legacy files. Similarly, those morons at AutoDesk created a defacto file format standard that, now, can be read and written by non-Windows software. I'm sure there's other industry-specific software for which this is true.

M$ has, at best, a false supremacy and more realistically, a tenuous hold on computing. All it takes to sink them is a popular desire to leave them for the widely available alternatives.

[BlooInBloo]

54. Keep in mind that a large part of their power comes from their dev tools.

[HopeHoops]

56. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out!

Besides, over half of the M$ workforce is foreign now so it is practically a foreign company already! Bangalore awaits!

[keep_it_real]

57. Time to make Apple the corporate standard

[sellitman]

61. I'd prefer Linux being the standard.

That being said I own two Apple Computers and love them both.

But Linux is open Source.

[Greyhound]

68. And since M$ infected Apple, it's more stable, too. n/t

[bluesmail]

64. Okay, I laughed out loud. Second sentence. Billionaire Ballmer. HA! eom

[The Gunslinger]

69. They are true Patriots..

[riverdeep]

71. This is just an expansion of what companies used to do between regions

in the US. Hey, are pesky Michiganers asking for pensions and time off based on experience, well come down to the south where you can treat everyone like crap! Then they expanded it to nations as soon as they could.

With HB-1 visas, they were effectively offshoring onshore anyway. Bring in the cheapest employees, throw Americans out in the street.

Obama has an uphill struggle, because this guy is only saying what 90% if corporate rats think.

[emsimon33]

73. Don't let the door hit you in the buttocks!

As we move to Web 2.0 and 3.0, Microsoft is obsolete anyway.

If Microsoft is not willing to pay its fair share of taxes, why should my taxes subsidize them.