Steve Ballmer: Owner of the LA Clippers and Former Microsoft CEO
Business Owner · Sports & Entertainment
Steve Ballmer succeeded Bill Gates as Microsoft CEO in 2000, tripled sales over 14 years, then bought the Los Angeles Clippers and co-founded the Ballmer Group.
About Steve Ballmer: Owner of the LA Clippers and Former Microsoft CEO
Steven Anthony Ballmer (born March 24, 1956, in Detroit, Michigan) is an American businessman and investor who was chief executive officer of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014. He owns the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers and co-founded Ballmer Group, a philanthropic investment company. As of February 2026 the Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated his wealth at around $145 billion, while Forbes ranked him 14th richest with $130 billion. Ballmer grew up in Farmington Hills, Michigan, the son of Beatrice Dworkin and Frederic Ballmer, a Ford Motor Company manager from Zuchwil, Switzerland; he also lived in Brussels from 1964 to 1967. He graduated as valedictorian from Detroit Country Day School with a perfect 800 on the SAT math section and was a National Merit Scholar. A first-generation college student at Harvard, he managed the football team, worked on The Harvard Crimson and The Harvard Advocate, and lived down the hall from fellow sophomore Bill Gates. He outscored Gates on the Putnam Mathematical Competition and graduated magna cum laude in applied mathematics and economics in 1977. Bill Gates hired Ballmer at Microsoft in 1980, and he left Stanford's MBA program to join. He became president in 1998 and replaced Gates as CEO on January 13, 2000. He retired as CEO on February 4, 2014, replaced by Satya Nadella, and left the board on August 19, 2014. Over his 14-year tenure the company tripled sales and doubled profits, but lost its market dominance and missed 21st-century trends such as the rise of smartphones in the form of iPhone and Android. As owner of the Clippers he has been credited with an improvement over Donald Sterling, willing to acquire star players and finance the Intuit Dome, though a recent scandal has tempered that view. Sources: English Wikipedia (Steve Ballmer, accessed September 2026).
Basic Information
Owner, Los Angeles Clippers; former CEO, Microsoft; co-founder, Ballmer Group
Company Details
Los Angeles Clippers / Ballmer Group
Sports, Technology, Philanthropy
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