In This Article:
Tariffs are top of mind for businesses following US President Donald Trump's announcement. Former Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer sits down with Yahoo Finance Tech Editor Dan Howley to share what advice he would give to the tech company's current CEO Satya Nadella.
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Asking for a Trend here.
I got to ask, uh, you know, we obviously have a lot of news around tariffs going on right now. What in your position, say you are still CEO, what does that mean for a company like Microsoft?
Well, I may not answer the question exactly the way you'd want because I'm not still CEO. Fair. It means I don't have my, I mean, Satya is in a place where he has his hands on what's really going on, what are these governments thinking, what's really going on with these customers. I'm not sure what what I do. The advice, the thing I would say is to make sure that you are, you invest your way through the tumult which is today. You know, whether it's going to be down economy, whether it's going to be pressure from governments around the world. If you take a long-term view, don't worry so much about the short term and short-term profits. Serve your customers well, serve the governments and cultures in which you serve well, you will come out the back end. I mean, the closest thing I had to deal with was the '08, uh, housing bubble. And it was bad. I mean, it was a, it was a really bad economic time. What did we do as a company? We kept the pedal to the metal. We didn't say revenues down, let's stop investing. And so whatever it takes to innovate and serve customers, I would prioritize that, uh, and certainly as a shareholder, that's what I, I would ask Satya for.
