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Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer stopped in Boston today to offer his signature brand of Apple-bashing and optimism before a hotel ballroom full of CEOs.
Microsoft will continue to expand its head count in Massachusetts and invest in the startup economy here, he said — albeit at a slower rate under companywide spending limits he called “the new normal.”
Although Massachusetts is no longer the computing epicenter it was when he attended Harvard University here in the 1970s, it still has a “load of good talent,” Ballmer said. “We will continue to grow...and certainly this is one of the places we will grow.”
What Massachusetts’ high-tech economy lacks in comparison to Silicon Valley is a cluster of major companies that “tend to prime the pump,” Ballmer said.
Last week, Microsoft announced Reed Sturtevant, the Boston-based managing director of Microsoft Startup Labs, would leave the company, to be replaced by Redmond, Wash.-based Lili Cheng, who reports to chief software architect Ray Ozzie. That doesn’t signal any intent to depart from the Bay State’s startup scene, Ballmer said today.
Highland Capital Partners’ general partner Peter Bell, who attended the luncheon held today at the Intercontinental Hotel in Boston and sponsored by the Boston College Chief Executives’ Club, said Microsoft has put its money where Ballmer’s mouth is, through programs like Microsoft BizSpark, which provides computing resources for startups.
“A lot of people are using it,” Bell said. “They’re not just talking about it, they’re doing it.”
Ballmer’s talk focused on the IT industry’s prospects for climbing out of the current economic downturn and its possible contributions to improved productivity that he said will be necessary to grow. He predicted innovations in interactive video and business intelligence — as well as more widespread and useful applications of IT for scientific research and education as computer technology becomes more widely used in those fields.
Zipcar CEO Scott Griffith, a 2009 Mass High Tech All-Star, said he enjoyed Ballmer’s comments but was disappointed when a question-and-answer session turned more light on competition from Apple Inc. than with Microsoft’s strategy for its own brand.
“I wanted to ask him, what are they doing with their brand?” Griffith said. “It’s very clear to me what Apple’s doing with their brand.”
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