Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has admitted in an interview with The Telegraph that he and his predecessor Bill Gates have not always seen eye to eye on certain aspects of Microsoft business and its development. He specifically recalled that one major disagreement the two had centered on the tech giant's decision to acquire Nokia to develop its cell-phone division in 2013.
"Let me just say it was complicated. I certainly had some issues with him, and probably, he did with me", Ballmer admitted.
The former CEO also noted that they first met when they were 18 or 19 and hence their relationship was of a different kind than the regular "business relations".
"You grow up the kind of way over-testosteroned young men do. So it was not a traditional professional relationship. There was probably a little more tempestuousness than you might have found in other circumstances", Ballmer added.
After leaving Microsoft, the two men went on rather different career paths. Bill Gates opted to become a philanthropist, establishing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Ballmer, on the other hand, had believed that the government does "most of what needs to be done", he confessed in the interview.
Later, however, he decided that simply paying taxes was not enough, so he decided to found a non-partisan NGO called "USA Facts", which not only studies how the government spends those taxes, but also gathers other statistics about its operations.
