30 Inspiring Facts We Bet You Didn't Know About Steve Ballmer

Steve Ballmer, the current owner of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), was the Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft for around 14 years. Here are some unknown facts about the American businessman and investor:

1. His tenure as Microsoft CEO was mixed with critics noting the tripling of sales and doubling of profits at the same time the company losing its market dominance and missing out on 21st-century technology trends.
2. He is famous for his energetic and exuberant personality that can motivate employees, while his flamboyant stage appearances were often widely circulated as viral videos.
3. He is the second person o become a billionaire based on stock options received as an employee, following only Roberto Goizueta, who was the Chairman, Director, and Chief Executive Officer of The Coca-Cola Company.
4. He was the highest bidder in an effort to purchase the Los Angeles Clippers for a reported price of $2 billion, in May 201. This is the second highest bid for a sports franchise in the history of North American sports.
5. In the year 2017, he launched USAFacts.org, a non-profit organization with the main focus of helping people to understand US government revenue, spending and societal impact. It was reported that he has contributed $10 million to fund teams of researchers who populated the website's database with official data.
6. Steven Anthony Ballmer was born on March 24, 1956 in Detroit to Frederic Henry Ballmer and Beatrice Dworkin. His father, a Swiss immigrant, was a manager at the Ford Motor Company.
7. He graduated valedictorian from Detroit Country Day School with a score of 800 on the mathematical section of the SAT, and was a National Merit Scholar. He currently sits on the board of directors of the school.
8. He graduated magna cum laude with B.A in applied mathematics and economics from Harvard University in the year 1977.
9. During his time at Harvard, he was the manager for the Harvard Crimson football team as well as a member of the fox Club, one of the eight originally male-only final clubs at the University.
10. He also worked on the The Harvard Crimson newspaper while simultaneously working at the Harvard Advocate, the art and literary magazine of the college.
11. It is reported that he scored even higher than Bill Gates, who was his fellow sophomore, in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, an exam sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America.
12. Before joining Microsoft, he worked as an assistant product manager at Procter & Gamble for two years. Here, he had to share an office with Jeffrey R. Immelt, who later became CEO of General Electric.
13. Bill Gates hired Ballmer on June 11, 1980, as the first business manager of Microsoft, becoming the company's 30th employee. He dropped out of Stanford Graduate School of Business to join Microsoft.
14. In a video of the Microsoft's 25th anniversary event, Ballmer was seen shouting and jumping across the stage saying "I love this company." The video went viral and his entry on stage was nicknamed as "monkey boy dance," by the media.
15. He was offered a salary of $50,000 along with a percentage of ownership of Microsoft. In the year 1981, when Microsoft was incorporated, he owned a total of 8 percent of the shares of the company.
16. He has held various positions in Microsoft and has headed different divisions and operations before becoming the Executive Vice President of Sales and Support in February 1992.
17. Ballmer was promoted as the President of Microsoft in July 1998, making him the de facto number two in the company to the chairman and CEO, Bill Gates.
18. He was officially named as the Chief Executive officer on January 13, 2000, a position in which he handled company finances and daily operations, while Gates still retained control of the "technological vision" as chief software architect.
19. He serves on the World Chairman's Council of the Jewish National Fund, which actually implies that he has made a donation of more than $1 million to the council.
20. Just as Ballmer took over as CEO, Microsoft was fighting an antitrust lawsuit brought on by the U.S. government, which he took as his priority to settle.
21. During his tenure as CEO, Microsoft's annual revenue surged from $25 billion to $70 billion, while its net income increased 215 percent to $23 billion.
22. As CEO of the company, he led Microsoft into building half a dozen new businesses like the Xbox entertainment and devices division, data centers division and also oversaw he acquisition of Skype.
23. In the year 2013, he was named as one of the worst CEOs by the BBC, as he attracted criticism for failing to capitalize on several new consumer technologies.
24. He delivered is first opening keynote at CES, following Bill Gates resignation from day-to-day management in the year 2009.
25. Ballmer revealed Microsoft's first ever computer device, a tablet called Microsoft Surface on June 19, 2012 at an event held in Hollywood, Los Angeles. This was followed by announcing the company's purchase of Nokia's mobile phone division in September 2013.
26. The Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia was his last major acquisition in September 2013, as it was announced in August 23, 2013, it was announced that he would retire within the next 12 months.
27. Ballmer was also an investor in Chris R. Hansen's proposal to build a new arena in the SoDo neighborhood of Seattle in an effort to bring the SuperSonics back to Seattle, from Oklahoma, in June 2012.
28. He married Connie Snyder in the year 1990 and has three sons named Sam Ballmer, Peter Ballmer and Aaron Ballmer. The family resides in Hunts Point, Washington.
29. His wife Connie is a University of Oregon alumni and also serves on the institution's board of trustees. He along with his wife donated $50 million to UO on November 12, 2014.
30. Ballmer was announced to give Harvard University’s computer science department, a gift estimated at $60 million, the very next day.
31. Steve Ballmer Net Worth: $42.4 Billion