Ballmer Only Got 79% Of His Target Bonus Due To Slow Windows 8 Sales

It can be said with reasonably certitude that the past year or so was slow for PC industry in general and Microsoft in particular. Sustained decline in computers meant that overall sales of Windows 8 suffered as a result.

And the company has revealed some rather interesting details in a new proxy statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this week. Without providing too many specifics, Redmond confirmed that sales were below expectations for both Windows 8 and the Surface RT.

Here is what the company mentioned in the fiscal year 2013 proxy statement:

“The company faced challenges due to weakness in the consumer PC market. While the launch of Windows 8 in October 2012 resulted in over 100 million licenses sold, the challenging PC market coupled with the significant product launch costs for Windows 8 and Surface resulted in an 18% decline in Windows Division operating income.

Slower than anticipated sales of Surface RT devices and the decision to reduce prices to accelerate sales resulted in a $900 million inventory charge.”

And as ZDNet notes, the board was less than impressed with the recent performance of both these key products. The result being that Ballmer received only 79 percent of his eligible incentive award for the company’s fiscal year 2013, compared to the corresponding figures of 91 percent in fiscal year 2012.

This still translates to total payments of $1.25 million for the outgoing Microsoft CEO in fiscal year 2013, which include a base salary of $697,500 and a bonus of $550,000.

For comparison’s sake, Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood and Office president Kurt DelBene all received 100 percent of their incentive payments. Satya Nadella, the Server and Tools head, on the other hand, has been granted 105 percent of his bonuses.