The big news about former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer this week was his purchase of the Clippers for $2 billion, but it appears he’s dipped into the coffers recently for political activism, too. According to newly released financial disclosures, Ballmer and his wife, Connie, have poured $580,000 into gun control efforts in Washington state.
The initiative has raised about $3.4 million
Following the Sandy Hook shootings, gun control advocates proposed a ballot initiative to close loopholes that allow for background check-free purchases of firearms, if the purchases are made online or at gun shows. Because of Ballmer — and other ex-Microsoft bigshots including Bill Gates and Jon Shirley, who have made smaller donations — the initiative is now significantly outpacing a competing gun-rights campaign, at about $3.4 million to $1.1 million. […]
At least the guy responsible for missing mobile for years, and for Windows 8, did something right.
KG
In other good sports related news…
Gin & Tonic
Not that 580 large is a bad thing, but that to Ballmer is like a dollar and a half for me.
the Conster
@Gin & Tonic:
Beat me to it. Back when I was giving each of my kids $2.50/day for lunch in the 90s, Bill Gates was reputed to be worth $40 billion. I calculated that if he gave the same percentage of my income allocated for my kids lunch to his kids, they’d each get 1.4 million a day.
Keith P
Blame Sinofsky for Win8. He gave two shits about MS UI conventions when he led MS Office, and he did the same when he ran Windows.
Pete Mack
Hey, Windows 8 is actually a pretty good system, despite a significant problem with the UI on desktops. Windows Vista was a catastrophe.
I actually like Windows 8, except there’s no pvz2..
Note: my primary computer is a touch-screen laptop.
Note: windows 8 biggest claim to fame is: same system on mobile phone. 3x faster boot time than Linux.
Mike J
@Pete Mack: And when it’s booted you still have Windows 8.
I’ll wait, thanks.
Snarki, child of Loki
So are the cheerleaders going to be replace by animated paper-clips, chanting “I see you’re trying to score some baskets. Do you want help with that?”
DO NOT WANT
Davebo
@Mike J:
You can wait till the cows come home. It’s not gonna change soon and when it does it will look even less like XP/7.
Resistance is futile, your ass will be laminated
Sloegin
Bzzt. Win9 will look more like 7 than 8. Seriously. Look for screenshots.
JustRuss
I met Ballmer once, he was one of the nicer C-level execs I’ve dealt with. I’m not much of a Microsoft fan, and I hate Win8 with a passion. Sure, the problems just in the UI, which is like having a great car but the brakes and steering don’t really work.
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@JustRuss: I guess you’re not a woman. I’ve heard the stories.
Wag
@Snarki, child of Loki:
FTW
Dervin
I’m a they should have stopped with Win2K, guy so take this with a grain of salt, but Windows 8 is the greatest tragedy of the last 300 years. Just adding a LPR printer to a user’s computer is a pain in the ass. (FTR, I’m a pretty much an iFan).
But the flaw with MS in the last 20 years is the same problem that has the GOP in a bind, they have customers (the enterprise market) that wants it all, but doesn’t want to change. We can list off the companies who were threatening MS who are now afterthoughts Palm, BlackBerry,etc for Ballmer keeping MS as a profitable as it is through these massive industry shakeups proves he’s a much better CEO than we want to admit.