Ballmer is only jealous that Ellison can afford to buy more office chairs to trash at random intervals.

Seems they missed the Apple royalties from his iPod dance. Those must total up to a huge sum. ;->

Maybe Ballmer was using Office to calculate his payments. He is actually getting $65535m dollars as befits a man in his stellar position.

Ellison nursed Oracle from practically nothing to the huge company they are today. Ballmer is a sorry excuse for a wart on Microsoft's butt. Have you ever seen him at a conference? Who in their right mind would do business with the company who pays him? His only contribution to Microsoft is that he keeps the plasterer busy.

"At least Microsoft's compensation committee agrees with him. According to the fiscal 2007 SEC filing, it "believes that Mr. Ballmer is underpaid for his role and performance."

What? Considering the poor shape of Vista, I find it laughable that Ballmer is being underpaid. I don't think compensation for cultivating an environment where good ideas and constructive critical input are met with a boot to the head ... or maybe an office chair.

Underpaid! Maybe they should add a pink-slip to his compensation.

Inadequately compensated for the flat stock price.

I do not think the pay is the issue. Some people gravitate to positions of power and bask in it. Just the fear in the Microsoft Sweatshop employee's eyes could be a big draw to get Mr. Ballmer into work each day bright and early with his whip, and I bet he would do it for nothing (on top of the - ahem - 4.3% of the shares of a multi-billion dollar company). We read all about it in the Mini-microsoft blog; we know your tricks, Mr. Ballmer, and Microsoft is not a healthy workplace. (OK I will say it: "He throws chairs, don't he?").

I maintain that our Lord and Master Saint Steven of Cappuccino - who martyrs himself in saintly toils building enough gadgets for his righteous followers in his workshop each year to put all of Saint Nicholas' elves to shame, and all for the paltry sum of one dollar - is much more Holy than the heathen and worldly Ballmer, who only spends time throwing office furniture at the oppressed Microsoft slaves, while taking in millions of dollars for this pleasure!

Do not believe the heresy of Saint Steven and the $20M stock option scandal of 2001. If it was true, why would the poor emancipated Saint Steven be forced to dump $300M of Apple stock last year just to survive? Be warned, ye of little faith, that Saint Steve is all-powerful, and can strike down your iPhone at a great distance!

Ballmer gets a lot more than that but there are two vital deductions:

1. Every chair he breaks comes out of his wages.

2. Every time he swears he will kill someone, because he has done it before you know, he has to put a virtual dollar in a virtual swear jar. This is totted up at the end of the year and class as deductions.

Dur to the fantastic decision by the European Court of First Instance last month Ballmer is expected to grab 1% of his $60 million dollars he is due to earn this year.

By the way, he has to buy his own sweat pads because Microsoft refuse to pay for them. He buys them by the lorry load.

Ballmer can moan but surely his conscience can't allow him to draw such a salary considering Microsoft's levels of inactivity in terms of growth and their complete inability to understand next-generation (Web2.0) markets. At least Ellison is a true visionary and presiding over a superb company with much better growth prospects than m$ft. Ellison, much like Jobs, deserves anything he gets - unlike that talentless lunatic

Not even funny amounts of money. Do these people not have customers or employees ?

Who needs talent when you have world domination?

Not matter what the anti-Microsofties on here say, he owns 4.3% of a huge corporation - that's a lot of clout.

I think you're missing the point, they have lots of customers.

What about him? Shall we make a list of other people not in the article?

Congrats about managing to drag in an iPhone mention in such a tenuous way, even if it took an AMAZINGLY unfunny post to do it.

So he's underpaid for the work he's doing ... for everyone other than Micro$queak, for his sterling participation in helping Micro$queak roll out that wondrous piece of promotion (for any other OS) called Vista?

Ballmer is to Micro$queak what Paris Hilton is to ... umm ... anything ...

OK, that's a tenuous link too, and has absolutely no IT angle, but someone had to round off the unholy trinity of topics :)

*wanders of muttering about a lack of coffee*