Bye! Bye! Ballmer

HYDERABAD: Unlike the Delhi and Mumbai itineraries, Steve Ballmer’s Hyderabad visit was devoid of any meeting with government officials and customers. Rather, the Microsoft chief executive officer wrapped up his three-day tour of the country with a visit to the Microsoft India Development Center (MIDC) at Hyderabad.

Microsoft officials here described Ballmer’s stopover as in-house. Save for the whirlwind five-minute peek at the Reliance retail store, every engagement of Ballmer centered on Microsoft.

A Microsoft spokesperson briefed CyberMedia News about Ballmer’s seven-hour stay in the city. ``It was all in-house. He came here for an understanding of all the businesses at MIDC and the products being developed here. He tours India from time to time and this time he concluded the tour by visiting MIDC.’’

MIDC, Microsoft’s biggest facility outside its headquarter Redmond, works on over 50 products and technologies including the soon-to-be-released Vista operating system. About 1200 professionals work at the MIDC which is located on a 50 acre campus at Gachibowli. In August, MIDC added a new building spread on a 4 lakh square foot space taking the total seating capacity to 3000.

Ballmer along with MIDC managing director Srini Koppolu had a look at the recently-opened Reliance retail store. Ballmer was reportedly impressed with the ambience of the store. KS Venugopal, chief executive (Customer Operations) was also present when Ballmer visited the store. It is believed that an invitation to visit the store was given to Ballmer by Mukesh Ambani.

Ballmer’s previous visit to Hyderabad was in November 2004 for the official inauguration of MIDC.

Ballmer had expressed his desire to travel to India every six months in Delhi where his Indian tour kicked off.

In Delhi on November 8, Ballmer met prime minister Manmohan Singh and IT minister Dayanidhi Maran. While Microsoft’s future plans in India were discussed during the 45-minute meeting with Singh, Ballmer briefed Maran on his company’s strategy in expanding computer penetration in the country.

The same day, Microsoft announced a strategic alliance with mobile service provider Hutchison Essar.

On the next day in Mumbai, Ballmer met Infosys mentor Narayan Murthy and Ranbaxy CEO and MD Malvinder Singh. He also met filmmaker Yash Chopra and cricketer Anil Kumble. Ballmer attended the launch of a revamped www.yashrajfilms.com .

Unconfirmed reports indicate that Ballmer headed towards China after concluding his Indian tour.

Microsoft India currently has 4000 employees and plans to hire an additional 3000 by 2009.

©CyberMedia News