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Ballmer: Tech is in Trouble, Too

‘No one is immune to the global financial crisis, says Ballmer. Tough times are ahead for tech firms…’ -

Wall Street was hammered yesterday, falling just over 777 points in the worst stock market points loss in the nation’s history. The crash came after Congress voted down a bank bailout bill which was expected to return order to the market.

On hand to analyze the news was the head of one of Wall Street’s long time stalwarts, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. A downcast Ballmer stated gloomily that no one was immune to the global economic meltdown, not even tech giants like Google or Microsoft. He says he expects consumer and business spending to both languish under the new bleak climate.

At the news conference in Norway this morning, he commented, “Financial issues are going to affect both business spending and consumer spending, and particularly … spending by the financial services industry. I think one has to anticipate that no company is immune to these issues.”

Mr. Ballmer declined to go into more details about precisely how and how much the tech community is suffering from the downhill ride taken by world markets. He also declined to give details on whether the crisis was slowing sales of Microsoft’s flagship products, such as Windows Vista.

Expectations are currently high for the company, with analysts predicting an 8 percent rise in revenue to just under $15B USD for Microsoft’s fiscal Q1, which ends at the close of September. Mr. Ballmer remained optimistic that the U.S. Congress would move quickly to take action to try to repair the market as soon as possible.

He stated, “I trust that before the end of the week we have some resolution, at least in the U.S. Congress, that will help to stabilize the situation. We need that, I hope we get that. I have to believe that some of the issues also face the European banks and I trust that the European Central Bank will be as intelligent as it needs to be around that.”

In America, shares are expected to rebound slightly today on news that the bailout bill may go through. European markets, which suffered smaller losses before closing yesterday, hopeful that the bailout bill would pass, will like fair worse today. Record numbers of foreclosures and high jobless rates have caused banks to be forced to seek a helping hand from the government to keep from going under.

© 2008, DailyTech

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