Ballmer Quits, Instantly Makes (Almost) $1 Billion

Microsoft MSFT +6.75%CEO Steve Ballmermade $1 billion quitting. The perennially embattled software boss said this morning he would retire within the next 12 months. At the market open, his 333.252 million shares were up 10% as investors cheered the end of the Ballmer era, a period in which the company returned more than $150 billion to shareholders and grew through the post-dotcom recession and the credit bubble collapse, yet utterly failed to get credit for anything.