EDINBURGH — Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft, claims to be so loyal to Microsoft that the company literally runs through his veins. Yet, through his basketball team, Los Angeles Clippers, he has just done a deal with Microsoft rival Amazon Web Services. The transaction has sent ripples of astonishment through business circles. Points out GeekWire: “Imagine Lakers legend Kobe Bryant selling season tickets for the Los Angeles Clippers. That’s a little bit like what happened this morning in Los Angeles, after Amazon Web Services announced it has signed a cloud-computing deal with the Clippers.” In an interview with Bloomberg, Ballmer insisted that he still bleeds Microsoft. But, he admitted Amazon is doing cool stuff that supports exciting augmented reality technology. – Jackie Cameron
Ballmer’s Head in the Clouds
By Dan Gallagher
___STEADY_PAYWALL___
Steve Ballmer may bleed Microsoft, MSFT 1.23% but that didn’t stop him from delivering a flesh wound to his former employer.
AWS, Amazon.com’s AMZN -0.91% giant cloud computing service, announced Friday a deal to provide data analytics and artificial intelligence services for the CourtVision service owned by the Los Angeles Clippers. The Clippers are owned by Mr. Ballmer, the former chief executive officer of Microsoft, which happens to be Amazon’s largest competitor in the cloud computing space.
Mr. Ballmer’s loyalty to Microsoft is the stuff of legend. He once snatched an iPhone out of an employee’s hand at a meeting and pretended to stomp it into the ground. But either age or time seems to have mellowed the one-time firebrand. “Do I bleed Microsoft? Of course I bleed Microsoft,” Mr. Ballmer told Bloomberg News. “But Amazon has done a nice job.”
Write to Dan Gallagher at [email protected]
