speed internet up to 10 gigabits per second. you wouldn't pick a slow race car. then why settle for slow internet? comcast business. built for speed. built for business. emily: he got his start at microsoft as employee number 30. in over three decades, he went to gates's top lieutenant to microsoft ceo, and is perhaps -- in 2014, steve ballmer left microsoft after a 14 year rain, bringing his trademark enthusiasm from the boardroom to the basketball court after a $2 million trade

deal to buy the clippers. emily: steve, thank you so much for joining us. iheard a rumor about you that couldn't possibly believe to be true, which was that you were shy growing up? that's a truee: rumor. emily: tell me about that. steve: when i was a little kid if someone's dad was at home or i didn't know the people, i would sit out in the car sometimes because i would be so nervous and in shock. when i got to college, a friend way.ne described it this hi, i'm steve ballmer. my hand a sweaty because i'm so nervous to meet you. i'm glad to say over time it has changed. emily: you have brought life to

software conferences that will never be seen again. where did that guy come from? steve: there was a breakthrough for me, literally. when i was football manager at harvard. it is a very intimidating thing to get up in front of a hundred football layers -- 100 football players. estagement is not the lofti position and you have this week in a unruly group -- have to speak in front of an unruly group of 100 guys. in mathou will excel and science, early on, and at harvard some other kid named bill gates lived down the hall? steve: that's right. emily: you were better at math than him? steve: that's an extreme way to say it. i did beat him our sophomore year. emily: how do you get to know bill? what was your relationship like

in school? got to know each other, a lunch and dinner some, took math class together, and brainstormed a little bit at together about what he was doing when he started microsoft. about a year after the company moved to seattle, bill called me up. i was in stanford business school, he said we could really use a guy like you, blah, blah, blah. emily: you joined microsoft in 1980. you are the third employee, and wasn't there a time in the first weeks you were thinking maybe this place wasn't me, maybe i should quit? steve: bill and i were arguing, i wanted to add a bunch of people, and he didn't want to. he said steve, you're going to bankrupt this place. i thought why did i drop out of school? his dad took me out, and that's when, in my head, bill invented this computer that is now in

every desk in every home. in, and then i was with the company for 34 years. emily: you tripled microsoft's revenue. what was it like taking over from a founder/ceo? like myhis was kind of baby. it was like my baby and bill's baby. we were growing it and nurturing it. he was the senior partner, i was the junior partner. mom gets to decide more than dad, but i take great satisfaction in the things we accomplished throughout the time, not just when i became ceo. when i became ceo we had a miserable year. build not know how to work for anybody, and i didn't know how to manage bill. things lightened up some, and then my life changed a lot when 2008 bill left the company. emily: how is that? steve: bell said i'm happy to

help you in anyway, but i don't want you to need me, so if you want me, great, but i have another life. i felt like ok, where not partners anymore. i have to take accountability. i did some of my very best work at the company after bill left, actually. emily: really, like what? steve: push us into being, sustained that investment. and sustained that investment. we pushed into the hardware business with surface, etc.. taking things there to infinity and beyond, if you will. emily: how do you feel about being asked about your successes and failures? what you are most and least proud of? steve: i'm almost three years out. it's ancient history.

i have a lot of success, there are things i wish i had done differently, of course. i started a company with about 200 and -- two and a half million dollars of revenue -- two $.5 billion in revenue, and i left it with a pretty good success. emily: what is your relationship with bill like today? steve: we have drifted apart. microsoft was the thing that really bound us. we started off as friends but got enmeshed around microsoft, and since i've gone we have really drifted a bit. emily: he wasn't happy about when you left, you left suddenly, what really happened? it was definitely not a simple thing for either one of us. end of the day, there were probably two things. a little bit of a difference in opinion on the strategic direction of the company, which

i think is a challenge. number two, he and i had always had what i call a "brotherly relationship" in the good parts -- at therts,, and it end i think it was a bit more difficult, especially with the strategic direction change. the stock prices were going weren't going anywhere, so i think the rest of the board felt pressured. a combustible situation, so i moved on. emily: does it bother you that you didn't get credit for that? steve: sure, and no. at the end of the day, i know what i did and i feel comfortable about myself, and the rest doesn't really matter. emily: where did you want to take the company? where did he wants take the company? was a i think there disagreement about being in the hardware business. rings came to a climax around

what to do around the phone business. he said "missing the mobile phone was one of the biggest myth stakes -- mistakes and microsoft history. " what would you have done differently? was a we recognize there separation in chips, systems, and software, and it was not going to reproduce itself in the mobile world. i wish i had thought about the model of subsidizing phones through the operators. whene looked at this point iphones would not sell, at and it was because it was the price point is $700 was too high. apple bolted into the monthly cell phone bill. we should have built it into the hardware. throughtill suffering some of the effects of the vista release of windows, which sucked

up a lot of resources were much. longerf resources for a stretch of time than they should have. it really took its toll. emily: would you have bought nokia? steve: i wanted to. the board disagreed with it and said, coming back, that the company should go ahead, even though i had decided to leave. i think, is executed in a certain way, it made a lot of sense. the company chose to go another direction, and that is the decision the company made. i see the stock price flying sky high, and all you can say is the market agrees with the direction he's taking the company in, and i'm excited. emily: how you think the new ceo is doing? steve: he's doing great. he's built on machine learning and artificial intelligence. revenues and profits have not

been down, they have been pretty flat, actually. that's important to maintain as threeairs the place, -- -- regears the place, and that's great. emily: he's more open to partnerships then you were, do you like that strategy? steve: should he run open source software? absolutely. i was identified as a competitor. he is taking advantage of it and he is doing the right stuff. how does life is the owner of a basketball team compared to life at microsoft?

bought the2014, you clippers or $2 billion. how does life as the owner of a basketball team compared to life that microsoft -- at microsoft? steve: it's not the most valuable comparison to do. i love the game, i love being able to win, but there are aspects to the job as well. interact withrly our coach, our basketball staff, our players? what's my role? we have big decisions in front of us in the arena, where do we go in terms of changing how sports is consumed using digital technique? not just tv, but virtual reality and live statistics, in addition

to hey, it's the season, let's win ball games. emily: what are your hopes for the new season, and how can you beat the warriors this year? it's kind of like what we say, anyone can beat anybody on any given night. the warriorsvs and are still favored to get to the finals for the third year in a war. does the league have a competitiveness problem and they need to fix it yet it -- thickset? steve: -- fixed it? steve: there are players who are difference makers. i think it is tougher to win it all if you do not have at least two of those difference makers. emily: how is the search for the new arena going? steve: that is what we will look at when we are all done. what things out there are

is out there for available land, where will it be, what will the building look like? i'm interested in the building of the arena, but i don't think enter renegotiations with the landlord must you have an options -- option. it's an exciting one. emily: let's talk about the class you are teaching now, because you are drilling down on government. early when i retired in 2014, my wife -- she has been years on issues of child welfare and what does it take to help children who grow up in tougher circumstances. i retire, and she says ok, you're my partner. i say come on, the government takes care of that, we just have to pay our taxes better. she said no, we can do better

than that. kidscked in on a focus on that were born in communities where their probability of living the american dream, having that sense of upside is very limited. but why the government project? my wife challenged me. i have to figure out really, what government does. how much money does it take in, how much does it working? -- how is it working? publish this profile in 2017. emily: what were the most troubling things you found about the numbers? steve: government is making good progress in many ways. i was surprised at how good i felt. i came away with two big things. number one, what i call the savings programs, not the entitlements, the

savings programs. social security and medicare, we put two-putt aside --to aside enough expense to match. secondly, we have to consequently get the debt under control. thing, which jibes with what my wife said, is that there are communities of people. let's say you are born in the bottom 20%. if life was perfect, it is a 20% chance you would stand the bottom 20%. ok. is not every kid should at least have an opportunity. what does it take for government and people with philanthropic and civic resources, what kind of investments and not for does it take? it's been interesting. when you look at government, a

lot of things are going well, but some things are really not. emily: the work you're doing with your wife is compared to the work mark zuckerberg and his wife priscilla are doing. what are you doing, and you are you looking to help? steve: there are some great nonprofits doing great work. we're trying to find the best of those operating nationally and support those who are number one. number two, we are very bullish on what they called a play based bring a, where you community together and challenge everybody. number three, we focus on certain cities. the ones we have connections to our seattle, because we live there, l.a., because we own a basketball team there, and detroit, because i grew up there. we have geographic focus. when you joined microsoft, you didn't get a single share. ♪

emily: you mentioned you could never make the math work on a sales force, never ever. what do you mean by that act though -- that? , but: it's a fine company in my opinion relative to earnings potential it is dramatically overpriced. that is my opinion. emily: do think they are headed for disaster? in my worldview, at some

point in time, the market will ask companies to make profits to measure it with their market cap. either, amazon has great potential and is a great company. when will the market demand that? can't say. is amazon getting a pass from wall street? steve: they are, because people believe powerfully enough in the future. but you can't tell me over the long run that earnings in market cap -- and market cap are divorced. walk aboutan't twitter, because you are still an investor in twitter, as i understand. do you own as many shares as you used to? steve: i am still a large investor in twitter. emily: what do you think they -- of what they are going through now? steve: you can speak through it

to a mass audience, and you can do it better than on twitter. it's an easy to use product, and that's an important area. emily: do you see twitter is having a future as an independent company? steve: i think it would be great in the dependent company, and their acquisitions that would also make sense to the company. emily: what about going private? steve: i think it would be a distraction. the company would be better served to put their energy and innovation than all the energy it would take to go private. emily: what about jack dorsey having two jobs? steve: i think it's easy to question. is clearly divided in the way jack's pens this time. as a shareholder, it would be reassuring to me if he was focused entirely on twitter. emily: what would you like to see? steve: i would like to see them

focusing on things they need you from a cost structure standpoint. and open to opportunities to be independent. to make a sale, if that seems appropriate. joinedwhen you microsoft, you didn't get a single share. is that true? steve: it's complicated. i had a profit share. -- i didn't have a profit share. i had a stock option, it's on wikipedia. that has been the source of my ownership since then. emily: you still on a lot of the company today, something like 4%? steve: i own what i own. that's not something i disclosed. bill gates and paul allen have sold a bunch of their shares, but you hold onto your shares and you hold more than them. why do held onto them -- why did you held onto them that hold onto them? steve: because i believe in the company.

the full recognition of the marketplace and the value of the profit stream we created wasn't duringrily -- recognized my tenure, but it's being recognized in the new ceos tenure. , ande a lot of loyalty certainly when i am working at a place, if i start selling what does that mean? it means i don't believe in the company. i believe that people who are on board and work for companies, at least in leadership positions, should have to hold all their stock. emily: at what point do you think you might sell? ieve: that of the decision have to make. the longer i get out of the company, the longer it's not mine anymore, the longer i look at the value of the stock, the longer we are working on probably -- working philanthropic way. emily: we see that you own up to

$26 billion. i own microsoft, i own some twitter, i own the clippers, and i own a bunch of other things. emily: comparisons have been made to you and tim cook, cook also taking over from an iconic founder/ceo. what do you make of those comparisons? steve: if you write down on a founder/ceoer replaced by more business-oriented ceo, that's correct. more revenue is genuine did -- was generated under my watch, yes, under tim watch, yes. the new product assets weren't built. got going on the cloud, we got started on hardware, and we got our assets and sheen -- machine learning and hardware

intelligence. i can't tell you what apple is building were not building. the jury is out on everything. the worst thing anyone ever says to me is if i am being compared to someone who has done a great job at apple, so be it. emily: onto your second act. what do you want to write in your second chapter of steve ballmer? steve: the work i'm trying to do to publish all this data, i call it a civic contribution. i think some of the things i do with the clippers could be important specifically inside the los angeles area. i don't want it to sound silly, but spectator sports by it else was not -- itself was not really my deal. i love watching my kids play, and the clippers are similar. guys, i cheer, i'm an energetic guy and a thoughtful guy, someone who has come from being shy and nerdy to someone who is not.

but the grounding part throughout that is the ability to think through hard problems and hopefully make a difference. --ly: steve ballmer, for ceo former ceo of microsoft.

♪ 10:00 a.m. int singapore, 1:00 em in sydney, 9:00 in new york. i am rishaad salamat. and this is "bloomberg markets: asia." ♪ rishaad: investors await the latest trade data from china amid speculation the decline in exports is improving. disappointing data from japan, third quarter growth reading slashed.

battles,the boardroom saying his ousted chairman is no longer employed by the group. the session just starting there in jakarta, a rising feeling out there. yes, we have taken our cue from the positive lead. asian stocks rising for a third consecutive session, the regional index at a one-month high. australiang on stocks, up by 1.2 percent, weakness from the gold players, health stocks under pressure. having a solid session, up 1%. weaker yenng that you week course the market higher. the rally we saw in hongon