Is Steve Ballmer too “past it” to run Microsoft?

According to a hedge fund manager named David Einhorn, yes he is.

Einhorn, whose “Greenlight Capital” hedge fund commands a whole 0.11 per cent of Microsoft shares, reckons the Microsoft exec is “stuck in the past” – and that Ballmer should call it a day and “give someone else a chance” at running the empire.

Is he really stuck in the past? REALLY?

The comments came when Einhorn spoke at the Ira Sohn Investment Research Conference in New York this week, following the news that IMB has overtaken Microsoft in market value and last year’s breakthrough for Apple, which overtook Microsoft as the biggest, baddest tech company.

“His continued presence is the biggest overhang on Microsoft’s stock”, came the killer blow. So is Steve Ballmer past it? We say don’t write the man off yet.

Bill only took off properly a couple of years ago, right? And in a company as fat as Microsoft it probably takes ages to get things moving in your direction. And hell, even Grandfather Google gets accused of being stuck in the past these days.

If in one year from now we’re not seeing more confidence in stuff like Windows 8 and Windows Phone then maybe he should be transferred to QA or something, but let’s wait and see.

Reuters via GI.biz.