Because he&#x27;s a very savvy politician.<p>Ballmer is certainly not an idiot, but his main skill has always struck me as being an arrogant asshole who won&#x27;t be intimidated by anyone. He&#x27;s not a brilliant strategist; he&#x27;s the unstoppable force that pushes to implement the strategy at all costs. You want a guy like Ballmer on your side because he gets deals done. Whether or not those deals were the right deals is another question.<p>Contrast him with a guy like Steve Jobs -- Jobs was a brilliant strategist who understood the complex interaction between design, customer needs, technical capability and supply chain. He was also fired from the company he founded because he wasn&#x27;t able to get what he wanted in a way that ensured the people above and beside him got what they wanted. Jobs had far more success when politics were removed from the picture -- he was a de facto dictator at Apple during their most successful period. He was an effective leader and a pragmatist, but he also had absolute power within Apple so he never had to negotiate internally from a position of weakness.