Steve Ballmer: Resigned Willingly... or Bumped?

The somewhat surprising announcement on Friday that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is planning to retire within the next year certainly sent a few ripples through the tech world. The financial world too, with Microsoft's stock jumping as much as 8 percent on the news – ultimately settling in at a day-to-day gain of right around 7.3 percent.

And, naturally, Ballmer's seemingly sudden exit announcement has gotten the gears of various analysts and pundits churning around a single question: Was this actually a voluntary, if not questionably timed move by the 13-year CEO, or is there a bit more to the story that might otherwise suggest that Ballmer was bumped out?

We'll start with the latter.

"He was definitely pushed out by the board. They either drove him out, or put him in a situation where he felt he had to leave to save face," analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy told Computerworld on Friday.

Moorhead pointed to the timing of the departure – Microsoft's announcement of a 12-month window in which the company has time to find a replacement, versus having already spent a considerable amount of time doing so – as a key piece of evidence that suggests Ballmer's move was less than voluntary.

Additionally, there's the elephant in the room that is Microsoft's $900 million write-down as a result of price cuts it slapped on its Surface RT tablet. As Ballmer himself put it in late July, Microsoft built too many of these tablets and sold too few.

"That caught the attention of the board, and based on Ballmer's over-enthusiastic public commentary on Windows RT and Surface RT, they lost a lot of credibility. So did Ballmer," Moorhead said. "How can you be that far off what consumers want? Was it that you're not listening to your team? Was it because the team was afraid to give him advice? Was it because the team saw a different reality? Or was it that the team lacked the skill set to anticipate the failure?"

And then there's Ballmer's somewhat ambiguous statement within an internal email he sent to Microsoft employees.

"My original thoughts on timing would have had my retirement happen in the middle of our transformation to a devices and services company focused on empowering customers in the activities they value most. We need a CEO who will be here longer term for this new direction," Ballmer wrote.

Computerworld also went through a litany of other possible reasons as to why Ballmer supposedly got the bump, including the company's disastrous treatment of its Kin device, the ratings that Ballmer's tenure as CEO has managed to pull in on third-party sites like Glassdoor, and the flak he's taken from pundits previously proclaiming him as "America's worst CEO," among other choice descriptions.

So, that's it, right? Ballmer was pushed. End of story.

Not quite.

According to an unnamed Microsoft source speaking to Business Insider, Ballmer's retirement was allegedly a "personal decision," and the CEO wasn't forced out in the slightest. As for Ballmer's announcement, BI reads it as him acknowledging that it would take more time for Microsoft to transform its culture and offerings than Ballmer was likely planning to stay on board – thus, it's the right time to step down, lest he not get a chance to for quite a long time.

"This is an emotional and difficult thing for me to do. I take this step in the best interests of the company I love; it is the thing outside of my family and closest friends that matters to me most," wrote Ballmer in his announcement.

Additionally, there's talk that Microsoft's board of directors had actually agreed earlier this year to give Ballmer at least five more years in his tenure — not exactly the kind of thing you'd expect to hear if forces were aligning to give him the boot.

What do you think? Did Microsoft force Ballmer out, or was this retirement entirely Ballmer's to plan? For more, check out Who Will Replace Ballmer at Microsoft?