The departing CEO received a salary in the amount of $697,500 in the past year, and to this amount was added another $550,000 of bonus which is 79% of the target amount. Despite record revenues of over 100 million for licensed copies of Windows 8, this Microsoft's department annually recorded an 18% drop in operating profit. Additionally, Ballmer is criticized for write-off of 900 million dollars related to the Surface RT.

For comparison, last year, Ballmer was paid 91% of the target bonus, or $620,000. Given that he owns 11.3 billion dollars in Microsoft stock, it's probably not disturbing for him. Another high-ranking Microsoft employees who have received the full amount of the bonus are COO Kevin Turner, CFO Amy Hood and chairman of the Office department Kurt Delbene. The head of Server and Tools Satya Nadella won 105% of the planned bonuses.

[Ed - It also would seem that Microsoft's new Surface 2 and 2 Pro will not be bringing home the bacon either. It seems that the gang at Microsoft feel that superficial changes will win over the masses. Sadly for Microsoft this is not going to work, nor will an illusion of demand created by limited supply. One day Ballmer wll realize that trying to be like Apple does not work for Microsoft... then again now that he is leaving he probably wont.]

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